Count your blessings. That’s what audiences at playwright Lee
Blessing’s “A View of the Mountains” can do through April 26 at the New Jersey
Repertory Company in Long Branch. So can
all the residents in surrounding areas – to have such a theatre within reach. Once again, the set, the acting, the
direction, the intimacy achieved between audience and performers reach a level
of excellence that begins with the choice of material. “The play’s the thing,” and for that, we need
to thank Mr. Blessing.
A number of years ago I saw his “Cobb” off-Broadway
in NYC where the three characters on stage were the infamous hall-of-fame
baseball player at three different stages in his life. They argued, taunted, questioned each other
and tried to explain themselves as any of us who has lived more than a few
years does within ourselves nearly every day.
This innovative staging of character made an impression that has never
left me. In “A View of the Mountains,” the
debate is just as familiar, because it echoes the current national political
polarization and the ageless conflict between father and son.
The action is very quick. This is a compliment to all involved when you
remember that the substance out of which the story emerges is made up of only
words. This is the art of theatre at its
best, and for some reason that seems to get communicated more thoroughly in
confines this small in size.
“A View of the Mountains” is a sequel to “A Walk in
the Woods,” Mr. Blessing’s earlier play about a US arms negotiator and his Russian
counterpart. Thirty years later, we
encounter that arms negotiator in his comfortable home on the Hudson
anticipating an uncomfortable visit from his son, the junior senator from
Tennessee, radically different from his father in political ideology.
What transpires is the acting out of differences
within a family – memories, anger, disappointment, comedy – physical comedy –
and the revelation of secrets…
Eva Kaminsky embodies the role of Gwynn, the
senator’s wife. She’s comic in the
extreme, energetic, highly expressive, single-minded, an audience magnet. John Little as the arms negotiator is
reflective and strategic; he gives us a man with experience. Katrina Ferguson as the negotiator’s wife
strikes the right ironic balance; a late entrant into this family drama, she is
alternately amazed and amused. Michael
Zlabinger as “Will” has very little will; he convincingly shows us someone
under the influence of external circumstances and forces, including his own
wife. The teenage son of the arms negotiator and Ilsa, half-brother to Will, is played with complete familiarity by Jon Erik
Nielsen or Jared Rush in different performances.
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Directed by Evan
Bergman; set design Jessica Parks; lighting design Jill Nagle; costume design
Patricia E. Doherty; properties Jessica Parks; technical director Michael
“Rusty” Carroll; stage manager Jennifer Tardibuono; fight director Brad Lemons.
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