Mark Feuerstein as Nate, Nicole Villamil as Alisa; Photo: O'Malley

The issue disturbs Nate's wife Alisa who brings race prejudice into the mix which I think is an unfortunate addition to the basic premise. This play, which is very funny, doesn't need the addition of relations. It is clear that both Sol and Diana adore her and her children. It muddies the waters in terms of the real issue of the constitutional right to possess a gun. Nicole Villamil, as a working mother with a house-husband, is perfectly wonderful in this role. She is emotional and sensual and strong as a post on the issues that affect her. Alisa takes stands and, like her mother-in-law, can not be swayed. Villamil plays this character strength with a loving sensibility and it is just right.

Mark Feuerstein is a delight to watch and listen to as he blusters and contends with the issues that could affect his children and his entire family. He brightens the stage with his sexuality and his presumptive role as stay-at-home Dad. Encountering both parents in their suddenly disastrous marriage he is torn between them and Feuerstein plays these levels of loyalty with its third and fourth arms - loyalty to his wife and to his own opinions. Not since the children in Neil Simon's comedy "Lost in Yonkers" has a younger generation had to deal with so many choices. This wonderful actor faces them all, simultaneously, with both dramatic force and comic grace.

As the authority figure, Sol, Mark Blum does remarkably well, compounding the character's decision to arm himself for their sakes and their horror at his disruptive and dangerous choice. Blum addresses their reactions with a resolve that is nothing less than stupendous and insistent. Surely this is in the writing but the human frailty in decision making is brought home by the actor who defends Sol's choices with an honest attack that starts funny but gets hopelessly realistic very quickly. As in Neil Simon's "Come Blow Your Horn" his decision to abandon his wife and move in with his son is totally unrealistic. In this case he brings his guns with him which infuriates the younger couple, as it should. Blum radiates confusion in what should be the play's second act (this is a one hour and forty minute one-act with a very clear first act finale and second act opener).

Kaczmarek is brilliant as the older woman in the quartet. As an actress she has a fine grip on the comedy here, but her dramatic moments can freeze your soul for a moment as she make her very definitive pronouncements. She brings Diana into focus early in the play and she holds fast to the woman she has created. With not one false moment in her presentation of this woman, she adds reality to a situation that could have been farcical. Instead he uses the playwright's words and actions to make the play solid.