Theatre Review—

Substance And Confidence In A Beautiful Package At The Little Theatre

By Julie Stern

The Town Players construction crew has come up with a most appealing set for the latest production at The Little Theatre in Newtown.

Looking a bit like one of those diorama settings in New York City’s Museum of Natural History, where the painted backdrop fades into the foreground so smoothly that you feel like you are staring off into the distance, the stage of the Orchard Hill Road theatre has been turned into a beach. One can only hear the ocean, but the rolling sand dunes, the beach grass and even the twisted bit of fencing make it so real that you might still be summering in Nantucket or the Cape or the Jersey shore…

Director Mary Poile, who designed the set along with Michael Stanley, uses it as the connecting link for By The Sea, By The Sea, By The Beautiful Sea, three one-act plays by three different playwrights. Simply titled Dawn, Day and Dusk, they each take place on the same stretch of beach, on the same August day, during the week of the Perseid meteor showers. The show continues for two more weekends.

In Joe Pintauro’s Dawn, Lesley Van Etten Broatch and Manuel Cortez Browne are a sister and brother who have come to the beach along with Pam Sweat as the brother’s wife, to scatter their mother’s ashes. As the trio awaits the arrival of dawn so they can fulfill their mission, they start to quarrel as underlying tensions and unfinished business are brought to the surface.

In Day, by Lanford Wilson, Ace, an amiable laborer on his lunch break, is caught between Macy, a sultry singer with a laptop (she’s a writer) and Bill, his blowsy, foul-mouthed girlfriend, as they both compete for his attention. Yet nothing is quite as it seems.

There are twists of plot here, and even as Macy’s dark intentions are hinted at, Bill’s strength and wit begin to assert themselves as Ace reveals that he appreciates exactly what he has.

Pam Sweat, from the first play, handles the part of Macy, while Bob Jurgens is the easygoing Ace and Joanne Stanley does a wonderful job as Bill along the lines of Bette Midler.

Terence McNally’s Dusk has Cortez Browne come back as a charming beach bum drawing a seductive net of intimacy around two very different but equally lonely women as they encounter each other on the edge of evening and spend some time trading confidences and sharing private longings.

Van Etten Broatch is the more assured of the two, while Joanne Stanley plays the perpetual wallflower: desperate for contact but never expecting rejection.

Like the set, all three plays are realistic and accessible, the kind of material audiences can identify with easily and, more importantly, amateur players can sink their teeth into and handle with competence. These one-acts aren’t just fluff. There is enough substance here to make it a worthwhile evening. Under Ms Poile’s guidance, By The Sea, By The Sea, By The Beautiful Sea is highly entertaining.

 (Performances of the three one-acts continue at The Little Theatre until September 23. Curtain is Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, and all tickets are $10. There will be one matinee performance this weekend, at 2 pm Sunday, September 17. Call 270-9144 or directions or reservations.)