By John Lyle Belden
The legendary Neil Simon’s semi-autobiographical “Eugene plays” hearken to a nostalgia for a time that came before our time, yet feels familiar. The comedy “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” now on stage at Buck Creek Players, adds the tensions of Jewish life in the 1930s and the issues of being a teenager in any era.
Eugene Morris Jerome (Dylan Acquaviva), our 14-year-old narrator, obviously didn’t make the Yankees later in life, as he fervently wished, because otherwise he wouldn’t become a writer and we wouldn’t have this story. This is one of many frustrations that he details in this surprisingly dramatic look at two important days in his young life.
The Jerome house, headed by overworked father Jack (Jeremy Tuterow) and ever-worried mother Kate (Barb Weaver) has made room for her widowed sister Blanche (Letitia Clemons) and nieces Laurie (Quincy Carman) and 16-year-old Nora (Brooke Dennis), whose physical development Eugene can’t help but notice. With the girls in one upstairs bedroom, Eugene bunks with his older brother Stanley (Tallon Wynne) in the other.
The family members’ good nature and guarded optimism are their bulwark against the otherwise crushing stresses of their lives – money always short, young people acting impulsive, the spectre of various diseases (one of which claimed Blanche’s husband years ago), and the constant news from Europe in the papers as well as letters from family facing oppression as the Nazis expand their influence. Thus we both laugh and feel their pain, sometimes simultaneously, as only Simon can make us do.
Acquaviva balances his naïve nature with growing maturity to come off as a rather likable scamp. Wynne and Dennis deliver the complexity of putting up brave fronts while never sure if they are doing the right thing. Carman gets to play spoiled without being too bratty. Clemons has Blanche appear to enjoy a comfortable place in the household, yet her simmering guilt at imposing on the Jeromes never lets her fully relax. Weaver gives us a Mom whose love language is constant complaining, while Tuterow makes Jack a lower-middle class Atlas, shouldering the world as best he can with a wry smile on his tired face.
The director is Jim LaMonte, who also designed the nicely functional set with Tuterow. Chris Becker is stage manager. Also appreciated is Adrienne Reiswerg’s help as dramaturg and advisor on details of Jewish life.
A hilarious and heartwarming story, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” runs through Oct. 8 at the Buck Creek Playhouse, 11150 Southeastern Ave., Indianapolis (Acton Road exit off I-74). Get tickets and info at BuckCreekPlayers.com.