The central family consists of daughter Ellen, played by Aspenlieder, her mother Gladys, played by Miller and her son Daniel, played by David Gow.  All three bring marvelous talents to their roles and all three have moments that move the audience to a teary reality. Gow, as the narrative voice of the play is centrally involved in the action as well and by the near- final scene in the second act, set in the hallway between his Greenwich Village apartment and his grandmother's place, the frustrations of all three are played with full force and emotional imbalance. Three generations of a unique family of loving individuals forced to cope with the changes time has brought to Gladys's existence is too much for any of them to bear and the audience is dragged along with them into despair.

What, you have to ask, is subtle about this play, what is nuanced?  Primarily it is Annette Miller's performance. In each scene, as time progresses, so does the level of her dimentia, emotionally, physically, psychologically and intelligently. The actress brings heightened reality to bear on Gladys. Her gradual defeats are acting triumphs as her illness increases its intensity and the character loses her own. This sort of acting is rare and Miller takes up the challenge here by the literal skin of her teeth and chews her way through stage after stage of major loss. It's the kind of performance you might experience once in a lifetime. Twice if you're lucky.

Annette Miller as Gladys Green; photo: Daniel Rader

Tina Packer has directed this play with a velvet glove sustained by bailine, that whale-sourced stiffener that made corsets so rigid. There are no weak moments here, no senseless distractions. Almost slavish to the script she has allowed a very talented cast to project their characters through James W. Bilnoski's effective lighting to an unsuspecting audience whose laughter brings tears. She has guided them into perfect pictures of imperfection in the souls of people who see and respond to what they expect to see. The truth behind all of what occurs in this play is the secrets each keeps for as long as possible. Packer knows how to show this very real aspect of humanity without making anything preachy. Here we have a show and tell play shown and told as ideally as possible.

Aspenlieder's impatience is perfection. Like my own mother dealing with my grandmother Ellen suffers, accuses, relents and never relaxes into the future reality she perceives so clearly. This is one of her finest performances to date, and may be a predictor of many more fine characters to come.

David Bertoldi as Don Bowman; photo: Daniel Rader

The only non-family member left in the script is a young artist from Lynn, MA, Don Bowman, who accidentally becomes an integral caregiver for Gladys. David Bertoldi plays Don in a most engaging manner and wins over Gladys' family as he wins over the audience.

He makes an engaging, youthful opposite to grandson Daniel, played by David Gow. Packer gives us moments with the two young men who have no successful relationships that smack of the Greenwich Village I knew in my twenties, a place where almost any relationship can be forged, kosher or not, between interesting people. Gow's character is almost too hard to resist as he goes back and forth between avowed faithfulness to Gladys and that need every generation suffers of moving away and on from the famiiy ties that entrap you. His work in this role moves the actor another step forward toward leading man status, but always one with an individual quirkiness.

The role of Alan George, the landlord of the Gallery, has been cut from this edition of the play and, even so, the play runs almost forty minutes longer than it did in Williamstown, coming out at nearly three hours (with the intermission).