BWW Reviews: THE GOOD DOCTOR at 2nd Story Theatre
The Good Doctor is a tasting menu of Anton Chekhov's work, as prepared by Neil Simon during the early 1970's and smartly served up by Ed Shea and Pat Hegnauer along with the cast and crew at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren, RI.
The show looks, talks and feels like Chekhov, with only a few moments of recognizable Simon. The comedy, with some exceptions, is understated, wry and ironic which lends itself to an amusing, if not capital "F" funny production.
Scenes include (but are not limited to) "The Sneezer," about a social-climbing, yet middling, civil servant who finds it impossible to over-apologize to a well-placed political hack for an innocent and inconvenient sneeze.
In "The Governess", a flinty employer successfully, if not subtly, maneuvers her new governess out two months of pay.
"The Drowned Man" makes his money by drowning himself, or hopefully nearly drowning himself for a small and negotiable fee.
"The Defenseless Creature" is my favorite vignette in this production and features an elderly crone who successfully extorts money from a banker as a kind of karmic payment for the troubles she and her husband have endured.
The play ends with "The Arrangement" and follows a father who takes his shy teen-age son to a brothel for a rite of passage that neither of the men is ready complete.
The beauty of The Good Doctor is the short attention and commitment to characters that is needed from the audience.
To present all of the scenes that Simon has woven together Shea and Hegnauer have assembled a cast that is enormous, by the theatre's standard. An individual cast member may only be on stage for 5 minutes of the 90-minute production. Only John Michael Richardson, in a delightful performance as The Writer (undoubtedly based on Chekov himself), is a constant.
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The Good Doctor plays at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren, RI through April 10, 2011. Tickets are $27 and can be purchased at the Box Office which is located at 28 Market St., Warren, RI; by phone at (401) 247 4200 or online at www.2ndstorytheatre.com
John Michael Richardson as The Writer in Neil Simon's The Good Doctor. Photo by Richard W. Dionne Jr.
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