The Voysey Inheritance
A legal firm's been absconding with trust funds for two generations, the senior Voysey tells his son and partner, who's inheriting the company. And when the family learns that it has been turning clients' pounds to pence and they are living a "sham happiness," they ask, What's the big deal? Nobody hurt (well, at least no one in the immediate family). Let's stay the course. Young Edward, however, decides otherwise. David Mamet's adaptation of Harley Granville-Barker's 1905 thesis play shows that times haven't changed. If anything greed, double standards, and entitlement have become more entrenched today. And euphemisms still reign (substituting "legal" and "illegal" for "right" and "wrong" to gloss over grave moral infractions, for example). Mamet, and Granville-Barker, make their key points early, and both have weak second acts that trail off in a long denouement. For Lamb's Players, Robert Smyth designed an expressive set: gorgeous, robin's egg blue rug, patterned with what looks like chaos theory's Mandelbrot Set, and a wall of empty gold picture frames. Jeanne Reith decked everyone in somber Edwardian finery. But the opening-night performance (rare for this polished company) felt underrehearsed. Except for Jim Chovick's fine cameo as Mr. Voysey (the corrupt patriarch who tells "no unnecessary lies"), Glynn Beddington's semi-senile Mrs. Voysey, and Jason Heil's often irate Major Booth, the acting was mannered and external, at times even indicated, rather than felt. Most characterizations were one-dimensional, including Jon Lorenz's young Edward, who could benefit from a stronger arc and more crusading fervor. Act Two, in particular, became so stagey that key scenes drew laughs, not gasps, from the audience.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, May 18, 2008
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm |
| Tuesdays, 7:30pm |
| Wednesdays, 7:30pm |
| Thursdays, 7:30pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 4pm & 8pm |