THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS
AIRDATE: October 17, 2003
Meet 'The Boys
Next Door.' Barry thinks he's a golf pro. Norman works at a donut shop and eats
most of the product. Arnold is sure he can escape all his worries if he moves
to Communist Russia. And Lucien is convinced that by carrying big old books,
he'll learn to sing the alphabet song. These 'Boys' are really grown men,
disabled roommates under the supervision of case worker Jack, who's getting
burned out. They're a handful, but they're also touching and comical, in Tom
Griffin's poignant play about the mental and emotional haves and have-nots.
Lamb's Players Theatre presented the local premiere of the play a dozen years
ago, and I never quite got it out of my mind. Now, the company has decided to
revisit the piece to entertain and inform a whole new generation. Even if the
message gets heavy-handed at times, it's well worth hearing. But for genes and
other accidents of fate, these guys could be you or me. They're not to be
shunned, ridiculed or taken advantage of, all of which happens in the play..
but treated with dignity, just as they try, in sometimes feeble ways, to
conduct their lives. Norman even has a girlfriend, Sheila, played with
stuffy-nosed sweetness by Deborah Gilmour-Smyth. It's that pairing, of Robert
and Deborah Smyth, that broke my heart the first time I saw the show. In one
scene, during a weekly dance, they get up and shuffle as best they can. Then
the lights dim, and they're transformed into the graceful waltzers they see
themselves as, or could be. It was a magical moment.
It's clear that
the players have spent a good deal of time with disabled folks; all the moves,
the hand positioning, the awkwardness are perfectly in place. Kerry Meads has
directed with a beautiful blend of humor and sensitivity. All the actors are
wonderful, but Robert Smyth is outstanding as Norman, who says "Oh
boy!" whenever life becomes overwhelming or unpredictable, which is pretty
often. Paul Maley's nervous, obsessive Arnold is spot-on, and Keith Jefferson
widens his eyes and contorts his handsome face to inhabit Lucien, the most
simple and childlike of the bunch. Nick Cordileone is credible and then
catatonic as schizophrenic Barry. Jon Lorenz is solid and believable as the
good-hearted but put-upon Jack. There's solid work in the smaller roles, too.
But I miss that waltz; this time, when the lights change for the dream
sequence, the Smyths do some swing-turns, but there's none of the
Astaire-Rodgers elegance that made it so heart-wrenching before. After all the
laughs and goofy screwups, the play manages to touch us at the core: we feel
empathy, sympathy, sadness, guilt -- and humble gratitude, too.
I'm Pat Launer, for KPBS news.
©2003
Patté Productions Inc.