It's 1969 and, while men are on the moon and America is embroiled in Vietnam, a high school student vacuums his mother's rugs while singing songs from Funny Girl. In production at Emerging Artists Theatre, this is the world of Kevin Brofsky's Claymont, a dour world that trivializes both public happenings and private brewings. Just as in that ill-fated war, conclusions are vague, characters are drifty, and the television drones both Hollywood Squares and news from the front. Though well acted, Claymont suffers from underwhelming realism, strangely clueless characters, and Derek Jamison's under-the-radar direction.
Shayna Greenglass patiently puts up with a paralyzed (unseen) husband, a couch-potato mother, and sensitive son Neil, whom she later discovers is gay. (He's an artist who listens to show music, for goodness' sake.) Next-door neighbor Dolores, fearful of her military husband's reactions, deposits her attractive, expelled-from-college, draft-dodging son Dallas to live with the Greenglass family. Dallas has a girlfriend he doesn't much love but whose father could pull strings to keep him out of the Army. Neil, of course, falls in love with the boarder, who remains resolutely uninterested. Neil is also thwarted at school when a clay sculpture he submits is rejected by his art teacher. Points about small-town morality are dropped in, but, like much else, remain unexplored.
Glory Gallo plumbs Shayna's depths of despair, her exasperation apparent in every expression. This is obviously a woman disappointed by life, yet one who glows at the slightest compliment. Wynne Anders lifts the evening as the ebullient, wise, pragmatic Dolores. ("Do you know what happens to weird people in this world? They get left behind.") Jason Hare doesn't sentimentalize Neil, while Stephen Sherman underplays the frustrated Dallas. Others are Aimee Howard as girlfriend Sharon, Rebecca Hoodwin as the grandmother, and Ron Bopst as the art teacher. Tim Mcmath's set. Joyce Liao's lighting, Meredith Neal's costumes, and Ned Thorne's sound design are decided assets.
Presented by Emerging Artists Theatre as part of 2008 Triple Threat Premiere
at Baruch Performing Arts Center's Rose Nagelberg Theater, 55 Lexington Ave., NYC.
Feb. 9-March 2. Tue. and Fri., 7 p.m.; Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 8 p.m.
(212) 352-33101 or (866) 811-4111 or www.theatermania.com or www.eatheatre.org.