Over the Tavern
Tom Dudzick's play feels like a spin-off of late-'50s family comedies. But instead of idealized fathers always at home, always attentive, the playwright injects Chet Pazinski. He runs a tavern below his family's cramped apartment, in 1959, and rules his four children with what verges on torment. At North Coast Rep, Matt Thompson's Chet maintains a fine balance between humor and menace, until the facile ending makes him leap an impossible hurdle. NCRT took a huge risk in casting actors the same ages as the children. But along with seasoned technique and David Ellenstein's smart direction, all four connect as if playing a twin. This is especially true of Ian Brininstool's 12-year-old Rudy. Brininstool probably never saw Father Knows Best or Ozzie and Harriet, but his puzzlement (over a widening gap between the dictates of the Baltimore Catechism and the world outside) comes from an authentic, and often hilariously funny, place. As Ellen Pazinski, Courtney Carey moves double time on Marty Burnett's three-room, detailed set and makes the idealized mother a manger of order amid ever-threatening chaos.
Worth a try.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, July 12, 2009
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 2pm & 8pm |