AND MISS REARDON DRINKS A LITTLE
The Black Box Series
at
Villagers Theatre
proudly presents
AND MISS REARDON DRINKS A LITTLE
by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright
Paul Zindel
Director - Jonathan Wierzbicki of Flemington
Producer - Tina Lee of Somerset
Stage Manager - Stephanie Simons Neal of Fanwood
After the death of her mother and an unfortunate encounter with a stray cat in Italy, Anna Reardon (Tracey Fama of South Bound Brook) suffers an embarrassing breakdown at her teaching job. Her sisters, who also work in the school system, have differing reactions to this development. Catherine Reardon (Marguerite Wurtz of New Providence), the middle sister, crawls further into her liquor bottle. The oldest sister - and the only one to have married and escaped their girlhood home - Ceil Adams (Catherine Rowe of Somerset) decides to take steps to have Anna put away. As the sisters are battling it out, they are interrupted by neighbors Bob and Fleur Stein (David Neal of Fanwood and Alison Byrne of Metuchen). The Steins have come ostensibly to give Anna a Get Well gift, but they have other, hidden agendas. The pathos and drama of AND MISS REARDON DRINKS A LITTLE is relieved by the sardonic, twisted humor of the emotionally crippled sisters.
Elaine Wallace of Flemington appears as the landlady, Mrs. Pentrano, and John McDonough of Flemington plays the role of the Delivery Man. Director Wierzbicki is staging this production fully in the round in Villagers’ newly refurbished Black Box. This will help bring the audience into intimate contact with the lives of the Reardon sisters.
AND MISS REARDON DRINKS A LITTLE opens on July 7th and runs through July 22nd, 2006 in the Black Box at Villagers Theatre, located in the Franklin Township Municipal Complex at 415 Demott Lane in Somerset, NJ. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m. There will be one Sunday matinee on July 16 at 2 p.m. All tickets are $12.00. Reservations can be made by calling the box office at (732) 873-2710. Directions and further information about this and future productions at the theater can be found on the website at www.villagerstheatre.com .
posted by Catherine Rowe @ 7:01 AM
1 Comments:
Review from the Princeton Packet:
'And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little'
By: Anthony Stoeckert, TIMEOFF 07/12/2006
The Villagers presents Paul Zindel's 1971 play about a family in crisis.
Like a lot of siblings, the Reardon sisters are dealing with at least two crises, one immediate and one long-simmering. And like a lot of families, they spend a great deal of time talking, or at least they say a lot of words to each other, even if they're avoiding the true issues facing them.
It seems inevitable, then, that before And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little is over, some real emotions are going to be expressed, with everything laid out on the table. And the cast of Villagers Theatre's current production of Paul Zindel's 1971 play is more than up to the task of first bottling up emotions, and then letting them all hang out.
The play takes place in the apartment the sisters inherited from their recently deceased mother (their father fled the scene long ago). Catherine and Anna still live there, and Ceil Adams is the only one of the three to marry and leave the nest, though it's revealed that she married a man who used to date Catherine, and her paycheck may have had a lot to do with that.
All three sisters work for the New York City educational system; Catherine and Anna are teachers, and Ceil is a superintendent. Anna has become emotionally crippled following the death of their mother, and an incident in Europe and accusations (almost certainly accurate) of a sexual relationship with a student.
This may not sound like the setup for a comedy, but there are a lot of laughs in the play. Much of that comes from Catherine, who steadfastly refuses to let her guard down or to talk about anything seriously, resulting in some wickedly funny lines. Anna has become unreasonably fearful of death, and refuses to be part of anything that involves the murder of anything. So it's zucchini for dinner, while Catherine eats raw chopped meat she hides in a candy box for protein. Learning what she's eating makes you think Catherine is the insane one, until we learn about Anna's situation.
Ceil comes over for dinner and to arrange for Anna to be put away. Whether this is done out of family or work obligations is up for interpretation. Meanwhile, Fleur (also a teacher) and Bob Stein drop in for a visit. They live in the same building as Catherine and Anna and come by under the guise of bringing a gift for Anna, but career advancement (by kissing up to and subtly threatening Ceil) is Fleur's real objective. The couple stampedes on the scene and Fleur tries to maintain her phony politeness until everything falls apart, courtesy of the sisters and her boorish and outspoken husband.
The acting in this production is top-notch. Playing Catherine, Marguerite Wurtz is always acerbic, but also letting it be known that she's a protector, she says as much with a facial expression as a lot of actors do with paragraphs of dialogue. Catherine Rowe plays Ceil as someone who seems in charge on the outside, but when accusations of her greed are thrown at her, Ms. Rowe shows the change from confidence to vulnerability with great conviction. As Anna, Tracey Fama has a tough chore. This is a tragic character who seems to have given up on everything, yet she shows flashes of conviction that indicate she still has some life in her — and she also manages to get one of the night's biggest laughs.
Alison Byrne and David Neal play the Steins. Ms. Byrne does a terrific job as Fleur, slowly going from politeness to shock and then brute honesty in totally believable fashion. As Bob Stein, David Neal seems a little over the top at first, but it fits the character and his last lines before storming out the door, drew great bursts of laughter from the audience.
Staging the play at the Villagers' Black Box has its pros and cons. The intimate setting brings the audience extremely close to the action and with acting this good, it feels like you're in the room, sitting in on intimate conversations you shouldn't be privy to. The downside to the venue is that its theater-in-round (or square) setting makes it difficult to hear the actors when their backs are turned to you. I missed a few lines that got laughs from the other sections off the audience. But regardless of your seat, you'll be able to take in enough of the fine performances that make And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little a satisfying night of theater.
©PACKETONLINE News Classifieds Entertainment Business - Princeton and Central New Jersey 2006
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