BWW Reviews: Get Acquainted with Old Friends in I'M NOT RAPPAPORT at Westport Community Theatre

Westport Community Theatre opens its 2014/2015 season with the delightfully funny and poignant play, I'm Not Rappaport, by Herb Gardner. Thanks to a wonderful script full of one-liners, jokes and witty banter, a simple set by Dave Eger, excellent direction by Lester Colodny, and phenomenal performances by each member of its small cast, this play is more than just the story of a couple of old guys meeting daily on a park bench. It is a touching look at an unlikely friendship and a glimpse into the psychological struggle to keep our sense of self while railing against the physical changes and emotional hardships of old age.

Nat, captivatingly played by Fred Tisch, is a cantankerous, but charming, old Communist from way back in the early days of labor unions and industrial strikes. A bleeding heart with a touch of con man inside, Nat feels most alive when channeling his inner Don Quixote. With a surprisingly sharp mind and vivid imagination, Nat adopts alternate personas to constantly tilt at real or imagined windmills. He sees himself as a hero. As long as there are causes to champion, the world still needs him.

Mr. Tisch's fascinating portrayal of Nat makes the character instantly likable. With a wink in his eye, audience members know that Nat takes delight in his battles, whether jokingly sparring with his park bench companion, or trying to right what he sees as the injustices of the world. Nat is not delusional, but fully aware of the con games he plays. He is so committed to his flimflam that I found myself fully believing the wonderful tall tales he spins, and rooting for his schemes to defend his friends.

Nat's fellow octogenarian bench buddy, Midge, convincingly played by David Michael Tate, is his temperamental opposite. A black man, who I suspect, has a long history of keeping his head low, staying out of the fray, and just getting along, finds his worth and sense of self in the fact that he is still employed, though tenuously, as the super in the apartment building he lives in. He has diminished eyesight, which he is loath to admit to, and is slowing down, but nonetheless hopes to keep his job at least until the end of the year when he will be ready to move on. But fate is against him as his building is going co-op and the boiler, which he knows inside and out, will soon be replaced by a newer model.

Mr. Tate fits so comfortably into this role that he makes Midge feel like an old friend. He is a solitary old man, tired, with some regrets, but one who is just happy to keep on keepin' on, until something comes along to upset his equilibrium. He sits in the park by day to avoid speaking with the head of the co-op board who wants to fire him, and he is so invested in keeping the peace, that he even pays a daily protection fee to a park thug to keep from being mugged.

The biggest upset to Midge's equilibrium is Nat, who invades Midge's space, tells outlandish stories, and to his chagrin, decides to fight the looming representative of unemployment in the person of Mr. Danforth, played by Rick Stewart, the co-op board member sent to deliver the bad news to Midge. One of the funniest scenes of the play has Nat assuming the guise of an elder law attorney who not only wants to protect his client's job, but also threatens to stop any construction or renovations to the building and drag Mr. Danforth's name and reputation through the mud, all while Midge looks on in horror and amazement. With a delivery like Al Pacino at his legal best, I wanted to cheer Nat on as Mr. Stewart's puffed up, self-important Danforth deflates before our eyes and slinks off to tell the board that Midge would be keeping his job and his apartment.

There are others in the park that Nat fights for or against to less success. He ends up being beaten when he stands up to Gilly (Matt Catalano), Midge's extortionist protector. And Midge plays Sancho to Nat's Don Quixote when they go up against a cowboy drug dealer (Jeffrey Wyant) who is after Laurie (Melody Cochran), a recovering addict and our boys' would-be Dulcinea. This time the plot involves Nat becoming a Mafia king whose simple presence is supposed to intimidate the Cowboy into leaving town, ending with disastrous results.

All of this leads to some of the deeper issues surrounding the main characters in the play. Nat's daughter Clara, excellently portrayed by Deborah Burke, is not amused by her father's antics and sees him as a clear danger to himself and to others. She wants him safely ensconced in a nursing home, or living with her and attending adult day care which he equates with kindergarten. When he refuses that, Clara threatens him with legal action that will end his independence. It is a last straw attempt at getting her father in line, but necessary because she is, after all, "only thinking of him."

And that is the crux of matter. For all of the old jokes and one-liners, familiar banter and stirring monologues, Herb Gardner's script is full of wisdom and warning about how we look at and treat our aging population. Danger and elder abuse exist, whether in the form of bullies and street thugs, forced retirement, or even well-meaning family members. Sooner or later, old age happens to all of us, and how we treat our elders today is a reflection of how we will be treated down the road. What happens to our sense of self when our independence is taken away? Will we diminish and become invisible when shunted away into forgotten corners of society? All of this is heady stuff for a comedy, but worth thinking about.

That's not to say that this play ends on any sort of down, philosophical note. The upbeat ending has Midge coaxing Nat out of any resigned capitulation to his daughter's demands and back into his imaginative viewpoint of the world around them. Unlike Don Quixote, Nat does not die clinging to a delusion and the play ends with the hope that together, Nat and Midge will fight the good fight against injustice, old age, and infirmity until the very end.

I'm Not Rappaport plays through October 5th at Westport Community Theatre, 110 Myrtle Avenue, Westport, CT. Call 203-226-1983 or visit Westport Community Theatre for tickets.

Photo: Fred Tisch and David Tate in I'm Not Rappaport Credit: Westport Community Theatre

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