| . | 04/23/2009
Chasing Manet
By: Victor Gluck
Lynn Cohen and Jane Alexander in a scene from Chasing Manet
(Photo credit: James Leynse)
Anyone who has ever been a caregiver to an elderly relative or dealt with a resident of a nursing home will recognize how true the humor is in Tina Howe’s delightfully literate new comedy, Chasing Manet. It also gives Jane Alexander and Lynn Cohen a chance to have a field day as the most unique theatrical odd couple of the decade. Director Michael Wilson’s fluid direction of a fine cast, the rest of whom play multiple roles, makes this a pleasing entertainment from the author of Painting Churches and Coastal Disturbances, and her first to premiere at Primary Stages.
The play is set in the Mount Airy Nursing Home in Riverdale in the mid-1980’s. Alexander plays Catherine Sargent, a feisty and formidable 87 year old and a celebrated portrait painter. She has been removed from her native Boston by son Royal, a Columbia University English professor, so that he can visit her more often, although his visits have proved to be few and far between. Although completely lucid and in possession of her faculties, Catherine is legally blind and suffering from depression. Catherine’s expressed attitude is that she “wants out.”
When the other bed in her room becomes vacant, she is given as a roommate Rennie Waltzer played by Cohen. Rennie is a cheerfully dotty widow of 84 suffering from the early stages of dementia. While Boston Brahmin Catherine has no visitors except occasionally her son, Rennie is almost constantly barraged by her large and caring family. At first, Catherine has no patience with Rennie’s bourgeois family or Rennie’s episodes of delusion. However, the two elderly women become unlikely friends, sharing in common the feeling of being trapped in the same prison.
Catherine dreams of escaping to Paris, the scene of her early triumphs and the former home of her favorite painter Édouard Manet a copy of whose “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe” hangs over her bed. For her, the painting represents the rebellion against middle-class morality and a cry for artistic freedom. How else to account for a naked woman seated among clothed men at a picnic in a public park. When Catherine begins to see Rennie as an ally, they plot to escape to Paris aboard the QE2 and away from the restrictions of their current life.
Alexander revels in her grande dame role, aristocratic, authoritative, acerbic. Dressed in hospital gowns, her white hair cascading down her shoulders, she uses the English language to wound, prick, inform, and protect herself from her reality, one she would not have chosen for herself. Cohen, on the other hand, is a delicious figure of fun as Rennie goes in and out of her dementia. Her bright, quick delivery makes such intentional mistakes as “Everyone wanted me on their tassel” and “We create a division” all the funnier. The two women make a fascinating contrast in opposites, the aloof and biting Catherine and the warm, eccentric Rennie.
The other five fine actors play family members, residents and staff with varying degrees of stage time. Julie Halston has a great deal of fun as both Rennie’s gossipy, easy-going daughter Rita who is prepared for anything, and Iris, a resident far gone into dementia. Jack Gilpin plays both Catherine’s uptight son Royal whom she diagnoses to his face as lacking in courage, and Sherwood, a resident best described as “the proverbial dirty old man.”
David Margulies has an enchanted moment as Henry, an Alzheimer’s patient, who suddenly recalls a breathtaking discovery in his prior life as an archeologist in the Middle East. Robert Christopher Riley is amusing as a nurse and physical therapy instructor who has been a golden gloves boxer, an actor, a singer, and a lifeguard, but dreams of escaping to Hawaii to fly a plane. Vanessa Aspillaga demonstrates versatility in a series of role including a Hispanic nurse and a French arts and crafts instructor.
Costume designer David C. Woolard has some visual fun with both dresses and hats. Tony Straiges’ all white setting, except for Rennie’s furniture from home, gives the play an otherworldly quality. Lighting designer Howell Binkley captures the white light that is so true to hospitals and nursing homes.
Chasing Manet, a world premiere, is Tina Howe’s first original play to be presented in New York since 1998. It is literate and accomplished as we have come to expect from Howe, often hilarious and light hearted, but also very wise about ageing and how we deal with our senior citizens. Veteran actresses Jane Alexander and Lynn Cohen charm and impress as an odd couple created by necessity and mutual needs. Michael Wilson’s polished production glides along on well-oiled wheels, giving the rest of the cast a chance to shine at various times in contrasting roles.
Chasing Manet (through May 2)
Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-279-4200 or http://www.ticketcentral.com
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