| . | 09/21/2009
Fathers & Sons
By: Joel Benjamin
Richard Hoehler’s new play, Fathers & Sons, subtitled, “a power play,” at the Lion Theatre on Theatre Row, delves into the thorny, time-worn and honored subject of that relationship by offering a many layered work that sometimes takes on a bit more than it can handle. But it is a mostly adroit and theatrically realized series of variations on that theme, deftly staged and directed by Chris Dolman, with split second timed assistance by the lighting designer, Michael Abrams and the sound designer, Scott O’Brien.
The playwright takes on all the Fathers and Edwin Matos, Jr., the Sons. The central premise of Fathers & Sons is that the two actors are rehearsing a play within the play that has a number of scenes depicting how various fathers, and father-like characters, interact with their sons and son counterparts. Set in the cluttered, faded studio of the author of the play-within-a-play, the audience is immediately aware of the tension between the older playwright and the young man he has chosen to direct and act with. If this play is successful, the author might just save his studio/living space and his dying career. But, he is hampered by the younger man’s lack of experience and his self-indulgence, caught as he is between his “street” friends and family and the high aspiration of his mentor, the playwright.
The play they are rehearsing closely mirrors the “real life” of the actors. One scene exposes how the young man is so embarrassed by his illiterate father’s lower class, Latino background that he doesn’t want his father to attend an important interview at an upscale college. Another scene shows a young actor being put upon by his gay mentor director. When the younger actor refuses to have an affair with the older, slightly effeminate—but well connected—man, he is summarily tossed out and refused entrée into the upper echelons of the theatre world.
Things turn a bit soap-opera-ish in one scene where the father confronts and is confronted by the son he hasn’t seen for years, complicated by the gay playwright’s admission that in real life he, too, had a son he had abandoned. (At least the younger actor didn’t turn out to be that son!) There are also some confusing loose ends: Is the Uncle Richie character mentioned in one scene, the same as the older gay director, Richardson Guy? What happened to the sad and angry Latino dad?
The scenes within the scenes are clearly delineated by lighting changes and sound punctuations and were always led up to with scenes of the older playwright squabbling with his protégé who resists leaving his dead-end life, constantly challenging and needling his mentor for his lack of success. Clearly, there is a reason that the older playwright is desperately fighting for his life and, clearly, he needs this younger friend in many ways, perhaps even romantically (though he insists not). The subtle dynamics of their relationship are the most powerfully explored elements of Fathers & Sons, and Mr. Hoehler’s language is at its most powerful and idiomatic in these scenes, making the interpolated play scenes sometimes seem like acting exercises he has devised, rather than in-depth presentations of father/son relationships. However, the acting by Mr. Hoehler and Mr. Matos, Jr., even in this early performance, was nuanced, with split-second changes that were exciting to watch. With such talent in evidence, these are definitely performances that will age well as the play continues its run.
The set by Todd Edward Ivins convincingly represented the convivial messiness of a creative mind at the end of its tether. As Albee once wrote, it is “the pictorial representation of the order of [his] mind.” By moving a chair or a chest, the scenes of the play-within-the-play were cleverly staged.
Fathers & Sons is a flawed, but three-dimensional exploration of its subject matter that takes the audience in perhaps too many directions, but succeeds in presenting complex relationships with irony, humor and empathy.
The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row
410 West 42nd St.
New York, NY
Tickets: 212-279-4200/www.ticketcentral.com
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