Over The Tavern
The closing show of Theatre Works' 26th season is Tom Dudzick's "Over
the Tavern". In that most idealized period of the 20th-century America,
the Eisenhower years of the 1950's, the Pazinski family, a Polish family
of six, has a lot going on in their cramped Buffalo apartment.
It is a comedic, yet touching view of Catholicism. One of the
bunch, 12-year old Rudy, is a smart, wise-cracking kid who's starting to
question family values and the Roman Catholic Church. When Rudy goes up
against the ruler-wielding Sister Clarissa and announces that instead of
being confirmed he'd rather shop around for a more "fun" religion, all
hell breaks loose. A warm and hilarious look at family, growing up and
God. Connie Anderson directs the show and casts all the roles wonderfully,
mixing the comic and poignant moments together beautifully. Her assistant
director Paul Adam helps with his keen insight to Polish family
life in the 1950's.
Connie allows the cast to move around
the set with ease and in a totally realistic manner. The unit set is
by Mark Anderson with the family's kitchen and living room
center stage, on stage right is the bunkbeds for the two youngest children
while stage left with a black curtain background and a crucifix is the
setting for the classroom and when the black curtain is pulled back a
stain glass window appears for the church scenes where Rudy prays to God
for help. All the 1950's style costumes are by Sharon Charette. Mary
Concannon is the hard working stage manager who keeps things running
smoothly all night long. ( Her nephew who is 11 years old plays the
role of Georgie in the show, stealing a scene or two in his
debut on stage.) It is Autumn 1959 and we are taken into the Pazinski
household, a Polish family of six who are Catholic and who deal with a
slew of problems concerning everything from nuns, to sex, to mood
swinging parents, finances right down to why they have so many
sugar-coated cereals in the cupboard. The results of Dudzik's
play are that it has endless laughs in it but leaves
you with a sense of reality of the past. As Chet and Ellen, the
parents of this household, Mark Anderson and Karen Bessette-
D'Orio create a couple who truly love each other and their children,
even if they show it in different ways. Chet has to run a tavern that the
family lives above with his alcoholic father, who is constantly making
mistakes or creating embarrassing scenes in the tavern with customers.
Chet is also responsible for a family of five and this weighs heavily on
his mind to the point that he keeps forgetting to bring home
dinner but in Chet's younger years he was an excellent baseball
player, only to lose it all on one fatal day. Mark gives his character a
demeanor of a brooding man who is struggling to keep it all
together. But there are also moments of tenderness and love that come
from the actor when he asks his kids about how they are and asks that they
say Grace before the meal. The best dramatic scene involves Mark and Lydia
Mattera as Sister Clarissa. Both of them reveal their characters' pain
in a totally believable manner that both performers show with their
faces and strong acting ability. You could hear a pin drop
after the scene ended. Pretty blond haired actress, Karen is a mixture of
the typical 1950's moms and a drill sergeant as the mother to three
growing boys and a daughter becoming a woman. Ellen shows great love
for her family but she must change her emotions and behavior constantly
depending on the moods of her children and husband. Ellen shows great
strength when defending her children against the nun, like a lioness
protecting her cubs and when she breaks Sister Clarissa's ruler for trying
to hit Rudy, it is a standout moment. Karen does a wonderful job as this
mother of the past. Lydia portrays Sister Clarissa like a strict
martinet nun of those days as she badgers Rudy about the Baltimore catechism and why he
doesn't want to become a soldier of Jesus in Confirmation. When
she uses the dreaded clicker, you could pick every Catholic in the
audience by the way we immediately straightened up in our
seats. Lydia presents a perfect picture as an austere nun
who does not have any sense of humor whatsoever. Underneath the ironhanded
authority of her character is a woman who wants her students to
be their best. Her sense of comedic timing is uproarious
and her fainting scene is hilarious where the family thinks she is
dead but Rudy knows to give her the heart pill. The dramatic scene
where she confesses that she knows what really happened to Chet when
he was young is well done. ( I previously reviewed
Lydia earlier this season when she played Doris in "Frame
312" for ACT").
Amanda Lemire is Annie a 15 year
old teenage girl who wants the boys to look at her and maybe even
like her but she has a secret addiction to Twinkies. She has two laugh
provoking scenes;one involves sneaking into an artsy movie with
her friend, Tina and later changing in front of her bedroom
window while the other concerns her new hairstyle. Her swearing
on her Communion dress that she is telling the truth and
her saying the nun can't walk down the alley because it has dog turds that
Rudy didn't clean up.Amanda enters the scene with her hair teased and
piled up high it looks like the Pope's mitre. She finally gets a
boy to talk to her during Glee Club and she doesn't grasp that he is
interested in her until she has a heart to heart with her mother as well
as when Eddie tells her the boy is a busboy at La Chef restaurant where
Chet keeps forgetting to go to get spaghetti for Friday nights
supper . Amanda delivers a wonderful performance in this role.
Eddie is like any other 16 year old boy, he's going through raging
hormones which tends to get him into trouble constantly. Adam Rezza
becomes Eddie wonderfully, connecting perfectly with his characterization
of the pent up teen who is scared of his father. Adam brings the house
down with many laughs in the scene where Sister Clarissa pays a visit to
the house when he confesses to drawing a girl on the wall of the school
because she is flat-chested. Adam's hiding of dirty magazines in the back
of his pants is comical as is when he locks himself into the bathroom with
one of them. His facial expressions and body language are hilarious
but the character also has a tough, emotional argument with his father in
another scene where displays pain, hurt and confusion by his father's
demands, making it a riveting scene to watch.(This is the first time Adam
has had lines in a show, having played the Ghost of Christmas Yet to
Come in "A Christmas Carol" for ACT last December.) Joshua
Renaud portrays Georgie, a young boy who happens to be mentally disabled.
He wears a Superman cape at times and gets to utter the word shit
over and over again at inappropriate times with hysterical results. Joshua
has some sidesplitting scenes especially when he imitates Sister Clarissa
fainting over and over again and his imitation of Woody the
Woodpecker. Josh does an excellent job in his debut performance.
Then there's Jordan Hamilton as Rudy. This is the lead role and Jordan
handles it very well. He does a great Ed Sullivan improvisation and
his prayers to God to light a candle and get the nun off his back are very funny, too. Rudy is very inquisitive about the Catholic religion
and its rules. He cross-examines the nun and his parents about
the teachings of the church's theories, on God, and life itself. Rudy's
answers to these questions are quite good. Jordan treats his
character like an adult who wants to understand life and
what surrounds him. His hysterical facial expressions sell the jokes or punch
lines like a trained comic and he never drops his character even
in the dramatic moments. Jordan has to carry the show
on his small shoulders and does so superbly. (This show is part
of a trilogy and later on we find out Rudy becomes a priest!
) So for a fantastic new play that will be done by
many groups now, be sure to catch "Over the Tavern"
which is rewarded with a standing ovation at the close
of the show.
OVER THE TAVERN ( 15 to
24 May, 2009)
Theatre Works, 142 Clinton Street, Woonsocket, RI
1 (401) 766-1898 option 1 or www.twri.org