A Separate Peace

John Knowles' 1960 novel was a favorite of mine in high school; I read it multiple times. So the idea of a one-man stage adaptation was simultaneously intriguing and worrisome: Could it be successfully re-imagined theatrically? Though adapter-performer Brian Foyster's work, in both capacities, is never less than intelligent and always tasteful, the end result diminishes its source.

Despite sensitive direction from Jason McConnell Buzas, too much is lost, including the gallery of supporting characters at Devon School (a fictionalized Phillips Exeter Academy), the palpable sense of the milieu and period, and the homoeroticism underlying the central relationship of intellectual Gene and preppy Boston-born athlete Phineas (called Finney by all). Foyster is more successful with the tense, repressed Southern Gene, never quite managing to convey Finney's effortless golden-boy appeal. He also remains resolutely older than these teenage boys on the brink of manhood.

Oddly, focusing so much on Gene's hero-worshipping friendship with Devon's shining star only makes it smaller than it seems on the page. Alas, that's the inherent danger in taking a form that lives in the mind's eye and transmuting it into the physicality of the stage.



Presented by Running Horse Productions as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Connelly Theater, 220 E. Fourth St., NYC. Aug. 15–28. Remaining performances: Wed., Aug. 25, 2 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 27, 4:45 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 28, 2:30 p.m. (866) 468-7619 or www.fringenyc.org.