THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602270112
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The combination of a talented cast and a script written with impressive intelligence makes ``The Sisters Rosensweig'' an enjoyable show at the Little Theatre of Norfolk. Wendy Wasserstein penned some prime roles, filled here by actors who are capable of doing justice to the characters.
Nonetheless, one can't help wondering if both script and production couldn't benefit from firm editing and shaping. Not only is the show more than two and a half hours long, but two or three times in the final act one is convinced that Wasserstein has closed out her tale of sororal affection and strife, quite neatly, only to have the lights come up on yet another scene.
One inference is that Wasserstein was just a bit too involved with this story of middle-aged sisters to let it go easily, or to view it objectively.
She did turn out some delightful, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued characters and one is hardly sorry to see their time on stage prolonged.
Megan Jones plays the eldest sibling, a twice-divorced woman named Sara Goode who runs a major Hong Kong bank's London office. Jones has all the technique and energy one could ask for.
So does Cindy Hebert, in the role of journalist Pfeni Rosensweig, the globe-trotting youngest of the sisters. Stanley Baranowski is another more than competent, articulate performer. Baranowski plays an American merchant named Mervyn Kant.
Kirsten Aylmer brings those same qualities to her role of Sara's college-age daughter Tess. Her performance is lively, she communicates clearly with the others on stage, she shows spark and tonal variations in her acting.
Yet close examination reveals that every one of these highly able actors skims across the surface of a characterization, rather than plunging into it. They're fun to watch, but don't penetrate any deeper than that. None shows that there was an overall plan for his, or her, performance.
The result is a lack of coherence, or perhaps an approach short on coherence is a cause rather than an effect.
Daryl Raskin and Michael J. Skoraszewski fare a bit better in their roles of middle sister Gorgeous Teitelbaum and of Geoffrey Duncan, Pfeni's bisexual paramour. Both roles demand high energy, and both lean more than a few degrees toward the stereotypical.
Gorgeous is the most conventional of the three sisters Rosensweig. She's a housewife, she's married to an attorney, she lives in the well-off suburbs of Boston, and she even dispenses domestic advice on a radio talk show. In Raskin's hands she really comes alive, even if she is a type.
Like Raskin, Skoraszewski breathes believability into a role that has an overtone of the cliched. Duncan is often, to crib a line from the show, ``beyond manic.''
Wasserstein wrote at least one big set piece per major character, so that everybody gets to command the stage, pour out a life story or defining memory or share at length some philosophical insight. Duncan flies from one set piece to another, mimicing the Supremes, acting out a Chekhov passage, and just generally cutting up at high intensity.
Thomas Brugger and Al Aylmar have shorter appearances as the boyfriends of Tess and Sara. Both do quite well.
Carol Loria directed. The show was played upon an admirable set designed by David Burton, with lighting by Jim Loria and costumes by Lou Bunch. by CNB