Lovers light
up the house

Playwright Neil Simons’ classic
comedy still fresh 30 years later

Ben D'Andrea
Contributing Writer

FABULOUS jewel from a golden age of
Broadway smash hits or embarrassing
relic from the 1960s? Neil Simon’s Last
of the Red Hot Lovers, in a delightful
Presentation House production, stands
the test of time mainly because it
remains a wonderfully funny play.

And yet it’s still very much a °60s comedy,
which this production wisely emphasizes. The set
looks like a plausible version of a modest New
York apartment of about 30 years ago and the costumes,

hair-styles and make-up of the play's three women effec
tively capture the decade's extravagance and dazzle.

Songs by the Beatles and the Doors introduce the acts.

‘The so-called sexual revolution is in full swing.

Trouble is, Barney Cashman, the play's +7-vear-old
proprietor of a fish restaurant, can’t seem to add, after 23
years of marriage, the “extra” to “marital.”

And it’s not for lack of effort. He invites three differ-
ent women on separate occasions to his mother’s apart-
ment, hoping for a rewarding and fulfilling experience to
last him the rest of his life. He says he wants nothing,
cheap or sordid, and that’s just where the problen: lies.

Evan Llewellyn as Barney is first-rate. He gives an
emotionally fine-tuned performance, slowly transforming
the nervous but promising philanderer at t beginning»
of the play into the more self-assured and wiser husband
at the end.

Llewellyn’s Barney is also hilarious as a first-time mari-
juana smoker.

Unlike Barney’s, the women’s roles follow the conven-

tion of broad characterization, sc there's less subtlety
expected in the performances.

Jenny Mitchell plays Bobbi, the pot-smoking ¢ glamor
girl wi ‘ith a talent for courting disas

Break a Leg

gives a fine performance as Jeanette, a

end and the most unlikely of Barney's three
women to have an affair. Jeanette takes pills for depression
and is undergoing analysis. But the role is mare than a
stereotype; Jeanette forces Barney to take a close look at
himself and what he truly believes in. The challenge lies in
balancing the comic and serious requirements of the role,
and Munro succeeds beautifully.

Poppi Reiner as Elaine had some opening- night trou-
ble with her lines. Her portrayal becomes sharper as the
act progre but there’s more of the sensualist in the
role than Ri

Much to first-time director Michele Fisher’s credit,
there were only a few times when a stranger guiding hand
could have overcome some weaknesses in the | staging.
More importantly, the laughs gained momentum
throughout the performance.

Neil Simon regarded Lase of the Red Hot Lovers as a
serious comedy. That surtaces in the form of Barney's
introspective speech about wanting to live rather than
simply “1 Works wonders with the speech,
but it does vank the audience rather suddeniy out of the

dof light comedy into solemn limbo,

The vears have also done very little to validate the

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THREE time lover Barney Cashman, played by Evan Llewellyn, contemplates the affairs of his heart. Poppi
Reiner, Sharman Munro and Jenny Mitchell, left to right, play the women in Barney's life.

play's serious intent.
That Barney gives John F. Kennedy as an example of a

“gentle, loving and decent” person must now be regarded
as evidence of F widespread naivere in 1969, the vear Last of
the Red Hor Lovers opened on Broadway. Like the failed
adulterer of his play, Neil Sinion couldn’t have known
that} edy had an advanced taste for prostitutes and
starlets. Philandering wasn’t the challenge for Kennedy
that it is for “gente, lov-
ing and decent” Barney
Cashnisn.

It’s the hight and
clever side of Simon’s
comedy thar still works
theatrical magic after
nearly 30 vears. And this
Presentation House pro-
duction is the most
graceful staging of a
comedy [ve seen in a
long time. it’s been a
long time, toa, since [ve
Jaughed se hard.

The play runs to Feb.

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HANDSWORTHi students (left to right) Mandy Ryan, Andrew Sutherland and
Gillian Eugene rehearse a scene from John O’Brien’s comedy Break A Leg. The
play, directed by Mrs. Rich, was presented by the school last week.

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