|
The Waverly Gallery by New Village Arts  Few shows can have you completely hooked from the opening
lines to the curtain call, but then few shows have such a perfect blend of
clever comedy and all-too-realistic tragedy, delivered via some of the most
brilliant dialogue your ears will ever taste, creating characters that are both
embraceable and authentic.
Such is Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery – a play based on the playwright’s own experience with an eccentric grandmother and her initially humorous, eventually terrifying battle with Alzheimer’s. And in the hands of artists like Director Kristianne Kurner and her outstanding cast whose characterizations and knack for the realistic, often overlapping dialogue are spot-on, this production is a masterpiece of theatre not to be missed. Sandra Ellis-Troy gives one of the most riveting performances of the year as the quirky, hearing-impaired, memory-impaired, and extraordinarily talkative Grandma Gladys who keeps herself busy by running a small art gallery in New York City in a space that has been lent to her for a couple of decades. It doesn’t do that brisk of a business. Okay, it doesn’t do any business. But it gives her latter years meaning, and allows her to try to help young, struggling artists like Don Bowman (Jeffrey Jones), a peculiar young man slightly out of touch with reality and with a tendency to live in his car, whom Gladys bravely invites to stay in the room attached to the studio. Sandra’s transition from charmingly quirky to painfully confused and frightened as the darkness of her disease descends on her is unnervingly realistic and upsetting to watch. Joining Gladys at the gallery is Francis Gercke as her amusing and likable grandson Daniel, the narrator of the show, who jumps back and forth between talking to us and interacting with his family members. His humor and timing is engaging, and his frustration and indecision as his grandmother gets worse is easily relatable. Jack Missett and Dana Case are coupled again as they were recently in the critically acclaimed A Lie of the Mind, and they turn in two more exceptional performances – Jack as the impatient son-in-law who likes to tease grandma (and does so quite well), Dana as Gladys's youngish middle-aged daughter who has a busy career and is torn between keeping her independence and taking Gladys in as the latter grows ever more confused. The rest of the family is confused as well, wavering between such difficult choices as whether to let Gladys live alone as she wants, taking her in with them, and putting her in a home – all while having to live their own lives. The strain shows, but so does the familial love that keeps them from breaking. The set, designed by Kristianne Kurner and John Zamora, divides the space into three sections of a dining room, a bedroom, and the Waverly Gallery in the middle, and it works nicely for the seamless flow of the show. Above looms a sculpture made up of portrait frames that may be in the shape of a jagged brain. The heart of the show plays out on the stage below, and it is a piece of art in every sense.Performs through April 30, 2005. ~ Cast ~
Gladys Green: Sandra Ellis-Troy Daniel Reed: Francis Gercke Don Bowman: Jeffrey Jones Howard Fine: Jack Missett Ellen Fine: Dana Case Director: Kristianne Kurner Scenic Design: Kristianne Kurner and John Zamora Lighting Design: Ginger Harris Sound Design: Joshua Everett Johnson Costume Design: Mary Larson Properties Design: Pat Hansen Stage Manager: Kristianne Mertz |