You know how
America loved Archie Bunker? Even though
he was an irascible bigot who verbally abused his wife Edith and his son-in-law
“Meathead,” audiences identified with him and sympathized with this “little
guy” trying to make the world work for him.
Now imagine
Archie as an intellectual, a long-married, retired professor who also has
problems making the world work the way he wants. You have Norman Thayer, Jr., the lead
character in Ernest Thompson’s On Golden
Pond, being produced by Stage 3 in
Sonora. You may be familiar with the movie version of this play, which starred
Henry Fonda, Kathryn Hepburn, and Jane Fonda, but if you haven’t seen the play,
you are in for some good laughs with a poignant edge.
Michael
Lynch brings all the believability you could want to Norman, a guy who is
perpetually dissatisfied and wants everyone to know it. His long-suffering yet cheerful wife Ethel,
played sensitively by Francine La Meire, puts up with a
lot but plainly loves this man and feels loved by him, showing concern if he
gets a little worse than usual. Norman’s cynicism has a droll wittiness that
rises above Archie Bunker’s negativity and provides much of the play’s humor. But
curiously, Norman’s point of view prevents his enjoyment of life every bit as
much as Archie’s does.
This summer
at his vacation home Norman is morose over turning 80 and not being as mentally
sharp as he was in younger days. Then we
find out that his daughter Chelsea, played by Katryn Weston, has kept an
eight-year absence that she is about to break, and Norman complains. We want to
know what this estrangement is all about.
New life
blows into the cottage on Golden Pond in the form of 13-year-old Billy, the son
of Chelsea’s boyfriend. After failed
marriages, Chelsea and Bill, Sr. are looking for a second chance, and Norman
finds one too, by developing a relationship with Billy that is apparently much
more accepting than the one he had with his own daughter while she was growing
up. As Chelsea, Weston does a good job
of making the awkwardness between her and her father obvious. There is
redemption for this family, but not before they have some hard talks, cracking
open some truths that have never been said.
Actor Ben
Adriano portrays both Bill, Sr. and mailman Charlie Martin, who dated Chelsea
for many years. His conversation with her as Charlie and his conversation with
Norman as Bill are spot-on and help bring about some of the much-needed change
in this family. Colin Gordon plays Billy with the honesty that kids often have,
and that adds enormously to the hope the play portrays.
One of the
pleasures of this production is the incidental music used between scenes and
during intermission. Director Jon
Dambacher has chosen songs from the 50’s and 60’s that really reflect what’s
going on. Artists such as Brenda Lee,
Lesley Gore, Connie Francis, Conway Twitty, and Johnny Mathis will fill you
with nostalgia as well as understanding. We get to hear father and daughter,
Frank and Nancy Sinatra, sing a most appropriate song, “(And then I go and
spoil it all by saying) Something Stupid.” Another good choice for this play is
Doris Day’s “Que Sera, Sera.”
Ron Cotnam
and Matt Leamy have created a lovely set and lighting design to make us feel we
are in a cabin in the woods on a lake in Maine. And Diana Newington’s costumes
catch just the right feel.
You can see
“On Golden Pond” Thursdays through Sundays until August 10. Call Stage 3 at (209)536-1778 or visit the
website at www.Stage3.org.
by
Shari Schweigler
