Photo Source: Carol Rosegg
The scene in question takes place at the beginning of the second act. We've already met Gardner and Fanny Church, a distinguished poet and his eccentric wife who are reaching the twilight of their years. They must move out of their Boston townhouse to a small cottage on Cape Cod because of Gardner's advancing senility and the couple's diminished finances. Their daughter, Mags, a portrait painter who has issues of her own, has arrived to help with the move and to finally get her parents on canvas. As the curtain rises on Beowulf Borritt's suggestive set, John Cunningham and Kathleen Chalfant, as the elder Churches, are seated upstage right, elegantly dressed by costume designer Jennifer Paar. Kate Turnbull, as Mags, is downstage left at an easel. As the couple holds a pose, Fanny fondly recalls how Gardner would woo her with poetry when he was courting her. Then she abruptly breaks the pose, screaming about how dull sitting for a painting is and insisting that they've got to get a move on with the packing.
Chalfant, one of our best stage actors, takes these few moments and endows them with an entire lifetime of emotions, memories, and mercurial mood swings indicative of Fanny's character. As Fanny listens to Gardner recite the verses he used to win her heart, you can see the love she still feels for him etched on Chalfant's eloquent face. When the actor movingly recollected the feelings that the words instilled in Fanny, it almost brought me to tears. Seconds later, without missing a beat, Fanny lets out a whoop of ennui—"This is so boooring!"—and jumps up like an impatient child. It's an amazing transition but entirely justified and believable. This is just one sequence in a performance rich with detail. Chalfant also spiritedly conveys Fanny's antic, fun-loving side, as well as her rage at Gardner's infirmities and Mags' denial of them. This is a different Fanny than the batty yet fiercely protective woman Marian Seldes delivered in the original production, yet she's just as valid.
However, this is not a perfect production. Director Carl Forsman allows the balance to shift too much toward Fanny, not giving equal weight to the other points of this dysfunctional triangle. Cunningham skillfully documents Gardner's physical and mental decline, yet he fails to strongly define the fiery poet and lover who so enchanted Fanny. Turnbull has Mags' jittery energy down, but she makes this insecure adult too much like a petulant child, sniveling and whining for her parents' love and approval rather than standing up for herself and taking pride in her talent.
Nevertheless, this is still a moving version of a complex work that elicits tears and guffaws within minutes of each other. It portrays the indignities of aging with compassion and humor, and students of great acting must take it in for Chalfant's shimmering and sublime work.
Presented by Keen Company at the Harold Clurman Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC. March 6–April 7. Tue., 7 p.m.; Wed.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (Additional performance Wed., April 4, 2 p.m.) (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250, or www.telecharge.com. Casting by Calleri Casting.
