Front Row Centre: OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS
This poignant comedy by Joe DiPietro originally opened in New York in the fall of 1998. It was an instant hit running for 800 performances. It has since become a popular show with community groups but it is hard to imagine one more perfectly cast or more entertainingly staged than the version presented here by Encore Entertainment.
Liz Best directs the six-member ensemble cast with an invisible touch. Everything plays so naturally you think you are eavesdropping on private family conversations.
The gathering in question is a regular Sunday night event for Nick and his grandparents. Nick attends out of a sense of obligation, and while he loves his family, over the course of the play he learns to appreciate them. Aaron Sideneberg has some deliciously funny rages as Nick. There is, however, a moment early in Act Two when his character smiles for the first time. It is smile that lights up the stage and reveals Nick's huge heart.
That smile is generated while watching the grandparents play a game of Trivial Pursuit. This scene is a comic gem and shows DiPietro's ear for catching the way people talk in half-finished sentences and interrupted thoughts.
The on-stage interaction between the performers so evident in this scene is the hallmark of the entire production. Pauline Helferty has a ball as Aida who believes that the answer to any problem is food, offering temptingly tasty dishes to all her guests. Marion Hirschberg as Emma gives a performance subtly shaded by the growing realization that her husband is terminally ill.
As the grandfathers, George Komorowski and Jerrold Karch deal with unspoken fears: Failing eyesight forces one to stop driving, and failing health causes the other to consider what really matters in life. The answer, it seems, is family.
It is through an outsider that Nick recognizes the family that loves him even if they do sometimes drive him nuts. Her name is Caitlin, played winningly by Laura Ross. She is a potential girlfriend introduced by the grandparents as a way of inducing Nick to turn down a lucrative job offer that would move him to the west coast. The family, of course, wants him to stay. That love is the heart of this play, which will leave you with a smile on your face and a lump in your throat.
OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS continues at the Studio Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge Street until Sunday May 14th. Evening performances are at 8 PM with a 2 PM matinee on Sunday. Tickets are $26.50 and may be purchased by calling the Box Office at 416–733-0558 or at www.encorshows.com.
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