TheatreWorks Continues Its Celebration of Stage Performances

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD – Once again, TheatreWorks New Milford is demonstrating that it is, unequivocally, the best of the local amateur theater companies. This time the proof is thanks to an enthralling production of David Stevens’ The Sum of Us, which won the Outer Critics Circle Award when it premiered off Broadway in 1991.

The play deals with the relationship between a widowed father and his grown son, blue collar guys who live together in suburban Melbourne. Although the publicity blurb describes it as “comedy” filled with “unexpected complications” and “hilarious situations” arising from the fact that Jeff, the handsome young son is gay, and Harry, his open minded father doesn’t mind, this type of labeling is shallow and insufficient for The Sum of Us.

Although there was definitely a lot of laughter from the audience, The Sum of Us is a serious and moving statement about loneliness and the search for human connection. Newtowner Mark Feltsch gives a superb performance as Harry, a good natured, friendly Australian bloke whose life was enriched by his marriage to Jeff’s mother, and shattered by her death in a traffic accident when their son was only ten.

Having known what love is, that is all Harry wants for Jeff, regardless of whom the boy finds it with. Harry’s desire for his son to find happiness is a universal wish parents everywhere can well understand. It is his poignant efforts to articulate this, in a series of chatty asides to the audience that gives the play its substance.

There is plenty of humor. Bearded Jeff is a beer-swilling, football playing, plumber who suffers from being terminally nice: so good natured and modest that, like many of his heterosexual counterparts, he is not taken seriously as romantic material. Thus his preparations for a night of pub crawling at the local gay bars becomes an ordeal of stomach wrenching anxiety, while Harry attempts to boost his confidence with advice and encouragement.

Enhanced by Bill Hughes’ lovingly crafted state set, Stevens’ play coveys the texture of shard domesticity: the closeness of people who live together and come to know and appreciate each other beyond the surface of squabbles over too many meals of lasagna, or whose turn it is to do the laundry. At the same time The Sum of Us also explores the interconnection between sex and love. In his loneliness, Harry reaches out to Joyce, a woman he meets through an Introduction agency, while Jeff hopes he has found Mr Right in a handsome young gardener named Greg.

Ironically, both Joyce and Greg are initially threatened by the closeness of Harry and Jeff’s relationship, perhaps because neither of them has ever known the degree of comfort and mutual acceptance with another person. They each back off, leaving both Jeff and Harry to experience the pain of being dumped.

What happens afterwards provides a startling and thought-provoking resolution.

Joe Longo does an excellent job of direction, controlling the timing and getting maximum performances form his cast. In addition to Mr Feltsch, whose convincing presence dominates the play, Todd Yocher is solid and appealing as Jeff.

Jackob Hofmann, who appeared as Molina in TheatreWorks’ Kiss of the Spider Woman this summer, combines sensitivity with self-mockery as Greg, and Jane Farnol gives a spirited performance as Joyce, a buoyant woman who mixes deep yearning with bitter limitations.

In his book The Art of Loving, the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm writes that in a world racked by alienation and loneliness, the most lasting solution lies in the transforming power of mature love. He goes on to say there are four basic elements common to all forms of love: whether it be a parent’s love for a child, romantic attachment to a significant other, or the idealistic love for one’s fellow men, they all entail care, responsibility, respect and knowledge.

Unless all of these are present then what you think is love is just an ego trip, or what Fromm calls narcissistic pseudo-love.

That is what The Sum of Us is about, and it leaves the audience feeling moved, enriched and thoughtful.

 

(Performances continue until October 30, with shows Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 pm. For ticket information or reservations, TheatreWorks can be reached at 860/350-6863.)