Claymont: Fortunate Son

Neil Greenglass is a typical character in a certain type of fiction- the teenage artistic genius who is underappreciated now, but ready to bust free of his confining family and one-horse town and live his life just as soon as he can.  It's a credit to Kevin Brofsky's writing and Jason Hare's note-perfect performance that Neil seems like a new and vital presence in Brofsky's play Claymont.

Set in the late 60s in Claymont, Delaware, a flat piece of nowhere, Brofsky's play has the tone of a memory play like The Glass Menagerie (though with an actively Gay protagonist).  High School student Neil Greenglass (Jason Hare) lives with his working mother (Glory Gallo), his old-country grandmother (Rebecca Hoodwin), and his invalid father (who never appears onstage, being sequestered upstairs).  After a visit from neighbor Dolores (Wynne Anders), her son Dallas (Stephen Sherman) who's just been expelled from college, comes to live in the Greenglass basement.   Neil is instantly smitten with Dallas, who is older, experienced, and has a habit of walking around shirtless.  Dallas is impressed by Neil's artistic aspirations- Neil's created, for a school project, a relief map of the city of Claymont if it had been built on an actual mountain of clay.  Now that Dallas is no longer in college, he's eligible for the draft, and his hysterical mother makes plans that he'll marry his ex-girlfriend Sharon (Aimee Howard), whose father is high up in DuPont, and who can pull some strings to keep his son-in-law from going to Vietnam.  Meanwhile, Neil's mother wants to keep him at a nearby college when he graduates, while he hopes to win a scholarship to Berkeley with his sculpture.   The characters bounce off each other like pinballs- each with their own agendas.  Brofsky's script is poignant and well-observed.  Each character has a distinct way of speaking- Dolores' glossolalia; Grandma's nostalgic non-sequiturs, art teacher Mr. Ramsey never finishes a sentence (a brilliant one-scene role by the hilarious Ron Bobst).  The female characters, as in Tennessee Williams, are just this side of being grotesques, but Brofsky's writing endows them with a humble humanity that makes them real.

I've enjoyed Glory Gallo's acting in the past, and as Shayna, Neil's mother, she does not disappoint.  The actress can speak volumes with a tip of the head or a cross of the legs, and her subtle shadings of the language show the character's vulnerability and strength.
Rebecca Goodwin is a very strong presence as Grandma, she never overplays the character's dottiness, and is always firmly grounded.
Wynne Anders is simply a hoot as Dolores- she barely gets to stop for breath as she rattles off her run-on sentences.  Ron Bobst steals the one scene he's in, as a craven art teacher who won't allow Neil's work to be shown for fear it's offensive.
Aimee Howard makes the most of Sharon- uncomfortable wherever she goes, dragged into what she thinks is the love she should want; she's full of little tics that inform her character.

Stephen Sherman starts out stoic and insouciant as Dallas, but as the play progresses he begins to let his guard down and show his tender heart; he begins to genuinely care for Neil, even if "love" isn't necessarily the word he'd use.
As mentioned before, Jason Hare owns the role of Neil; he's every held-down precocious Gay teenager rolled into one.  To see Hare, as Neil, blossom under Dallas's benign influence is a joy.  One wants Neil to get out of Claymont and succeed- I was quite as enthralled as Dallas by the end of the play.

Derek Jamison's direction is uncluttered and achingly simple, he pulls great work from his actors.

Set design by Tim McMath is full of white squares on black, some filled in with 60s wallpaper, some left empty; suggestive of the paintings of Mondrian as well as the metaphorical boxes in which the characters are trapped.  It's very evocative, though it's strange that the characters have to walk up to get to the basement.

Claymont

EMERGING ARTISTS THEATRE and Artistic Director PAUL ADAMS are pleased to announce the 2008 Triple Threat Premiere, the company's third annual series of three full-length plays by emerging writers. The four-week off-Broadway engagement will take place at the Rose Nagelberg Theater at Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue--access available on East 25th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenue). 

Triple Threat plays the following regular schedule through Sunday, March 2nd.

Monday at 7 p.m. - The Play about the Naked Guy
Tuesday at 7 p.m. - Claymont
Wednesday at 7 p.m. - Sisters Dance
Thursday at 7 p.m. - Sisters Dance
Friday at 7 p.m. - Claymont
Friday at 9:30 p.m. - The Play about the Naked Guy
Saturday at 2 p.m. - Claymont
Saturday at 5 p.m. - Sisters Dance
Saturday at 8 p.m. - The Play about the Naked Guy
Sunday at 2 p.m. - Sisters Dance
Sunday at 5 p.m. - The Play about the Naked Guy
Sunday at 8 p.m. - Claymont

Tickets are $50.00 general admission and $25.00 seniors and student with ID.

Tickets are available online at www.eatheatre.org or by calling 866-811-4111.

Tickets may also be purchased, in person, at Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Avenue). Box Office hours are: Monday - Friday: 10 am - 7 pm. The Box Office will also be open 2 hours before each performance. TDF accepted.

Photo Credit: Erica Parise.
Glory Gallo (Shayna Greenglass), Jason Hare (Neil Greenglass) and Stephen Sherman (Dallas Hitchins)

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