Review: A TREE FALLS IN BROOKLINE at The Community Players

If a tree falls in Brookline, does anybody laugh? That's the question asked by the world-premiere Community Players production of South County playwright David Christner's latest full-length comedy.

Sadly, the answer on opening night was "not very often."

The plot: Cormac McIntyre, a septuagenarian writer of many sparsely produced plays, is struck on the head by a falling tree branch on the ninth hole of a Brookline country club and suffers a traumatic brain injury that causes amnesia. The rest of the show revolves around the challenges of recovering his memory, amid a stock assortment of lovers, friends, and scoundrels. What could be a promising comedic premise unfortunately falls victim to uninspired writing.

The script by Christner, a writer of 24 sparsely produced plays, is cringely autobiographical and distractingly awkward, presenting situations that are exaggerated for effect without ever rising to the level of actually being funny, and forcing characters to carry the idiot ball for extended periods to make the play happen. Case in point: Cormac's therapist convinces his estranged wife to pose as his home health aide, a conceit which drives most of the plot. The dramatic irony here is supposed to yield endless yucks; it does not.

The self-congratulatory narcissism of Christner's script is enough to make one queasy. All the characters surrounding the playwright reassure him, over and over, that he is an unappreciated genius. By "playwright" I mean the character, Cormac. But it would be easy to mistake one for the other, since several times during the show, in order to jog his memory, his therapist prompts him to read from his prior works, which are Christner's actual plays. Call it "self-referential" or "Brechtian" if you must, but the naked display of authorial ego buffing is both puzzling and offputting.

The cast are largely community theater veterans, and do a creditable job with the material they're given. They put in maximum effort, and are clearly committed to making this first production of the company's 100th season a success. David Crossley as Cormac wields genial bafflement as a defensive shield as he struggles to recover a sense of his identity. His monologues (from Christner's earlier plays) are occasionally moving, and one which is done as a call-and-response with his therapist, Dr. Floyd, is quite effective. Amy Thompson plays Floyd with an earnest intensity that feels natural and authentic. Elizabeth Parent has the unenviable task of playing Cormac's wife, Allison, and despite not having much to work with, she manages to bring genuine notes of levity and empathy.

The rest of the cast can hardly be blamed for the show's deeply unfunny two-hour run time. What Christner has given them is a thin gruel of reheated cliches (a surgeon who wears golf clothes under his scrubs) and overdetermined punch lines ("That's not what I want to hold against you"), and director Richard Griffin has not made the situation any better. Characters veer from realism to bathos to erstwhile madcap zaniness (Cormac's scheming lawyer step-son plops down on the sofa in the middle of trying to con his dad into signing a new will, for the sole purpose of being pushed off onto the floor. Hilarious.) You can tell there were better performances to be coached out of these actors; perhaps as they settle into the run, some of that will rise to the surface.

As it is, it would be hard to recommend this show to any but the most dedicated fans of Christner's work or the performers of Rhode Island's oldest community theater.

A Tree Falls in Brookline, presented by The Community Players at Jenks Auditorium, Division St. Pawtucket, RI. Vax and mask required.

Performances: Feb 19, 25, 26 at 7pm; 2pm matinees Feb 20, 27. General admission $18, Student $12. Reservations: 401-726-6860 or on their web site. More info: http://www.thecommunityplayers.net/

Photo: Richard Griffin

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