Mark H. Dold

T        There are some things you have to question. For instance, does Mark St. Germain see himself as Mark H. Dold? The two have often worked together so they know one another well. They are not the same physical types at all and their lives have certainly not taken the same turns. Still, Dold seemed to become  St. Germain for the length of the play (104 minutes). His  verbal quirks and his body language were similar to the playwright's.  His savage good looks became softer, rounder than usual.  This was not a trick of makeup, by the way, but more an actor's metamorphosis. That leaves me wondering how close Pharr Wilson and Smilow might be in this play to the people they represent.

        Smilow is excellent as Paul. He presents as a man with an agenda where his brother is concerned. He baits Mark; he pushes buttons not heretofore seen. He incites those nerves kept protected from harm and lights small fires in Mark's soul. He uses innate resentment to make points that are painful. The author has made his brother out to be one step beyond nasty but still loving from a distance. 

        Pharr Wilson's Lynn is 180 degree apart from Paul. She plays up the softness rather than the neediness that this girl in the family quartet might feel. She is the calm corner one can flee to when necessary.  She can dissolve her own troubles and encourage her brothers to share their own. She is someone you like and forget to wonder about for she seems to be so deeply involved with you.  She bridges the gaps between Paul and Mark, but even she cannot do the same for her brothers and their father.

        Altogether this family unit is a neatly packaged pairing of the New Jersey sensibilities we've seen in 1950's films and plays. The St. Germains, including the unseen mother and others, is well placed in this particular play.

        Jim Frangione, long an actor, has undertaken this stage role with only a few short days to prepare his interpretation. And for this trial by fire he can be awarded a verdict of No Guilt. He plays to role to perfection. Of course he came to the part of Dad after directing the play, so he could easily fall into the physical presentation with no trouble. It is the character itself that is remarkable. Dad's moods are changeable without warning, his ideas expressed in both the negative and positive without a flinch. His gestures, all his own, are partially mirrored in his son's movements. No matter what Dad feels about Mark's peculiar failures we can see that his best fatherhood efforts created a strange mirror effect in his offspring. In fact, Frangione is more like Louis than we might expect from his loud outbursts or his oddly comic reactions to even a simple thing like a toy dog's bark.

        As the director of the play he has done a wonderful job of keeping the large space of the stage small. The play sets up from the outset with a photo of a home that could have been converted from an old-fashioned trailer-home. Using the stage horizontally, he helps to fasten that image on the observers. John Musali's set helps with the illusion though he makes it clear that we are in an older house and not in a room on wheels. Frangione has given Dad a dominant spot on the stage, and yet he is placed off-center which allows the three other actors opportunities to pull attention. Dressed simply and casually in consistent beige the director has given George Veale, the costume designer, a chance to bring more individual looks to the three younger folk. Brian Barnett has used the lighting to enhance this house's reality and the play's sense of time in that reality, casting the look of today and the feel of yesterday as needed without forcing harsh transitions.