[NEohioPAL]"I Ought To Be in Pictures" reviewed in The Alternative News

[Joy D. Borland]

July 24, 2006
  Sage Publishing - The Alternative News
  Review - On The Town - Stage and Screen
   
  I Ought To Be In Pictures - Theatre Department
                                         Cuyahoga Community College
                                         4250 Richmond Road
                                         Highland Hills  OH  44122
   
   
  Neil Simon's comedies look different to us now that he's near the end
of a brilliant career.  Whereas he was once thought of as a television
gag writer who found his way to the Broadway stage, after his
autobiographical trilogy of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and
especially Broadway Bound, we now realize he was always after bigger
game.  Family is his big theme, and reconciliation is his motive.
   
  The theatre Department at Cuyahoga Community College offers a sterling
production of the neglected "Pictures", which is a transitional work,
when Simon was moving on to poignancy from mere sock-it-to-them gags. 
His beloved first wife, Barbara, had died, and he suffered wrenching
dislocations, especially his uprooting to California, which he found to
be alien territory.  The play is not autobiographical, but it clearly
draws on what was on his mind in those days and what he saw outside his
window.
   
  In "Pictures" there are the usual bright, witty characters with the
sharp dialogue for which Mr. Simon is famous, as well as dysfunctional
family relationships.  However, in this play, ,just below the surface,
Simon finds new depths to his relationships and in this current
production the talented actors and director find every level.
   
  Herb, a once successful Hollywood scriptwriter, is having a dry run of
his writing abilities.  He has been estranged from his Brooklyn family
for 16 years and has gone through three wives.  Suddenly he is confronted
by his almost forgotten teenage daughter, Libby, from Brooklyn who
suddenly shows up with a back pack at his front door.  She wants to be a
Hollywood actress.  Herb is not ready for this intrusion, but Libby's
request for an entree into Hollywood masks a desire to retrieve their
relationship.  How they pick up their father -daughter relationship is a
poignant, tender and very funny story. This is an emotional play full of
lots of laughter and many tears.
   
  It is clearly evident from their performance that real-life father and
daughter, Brian and Marnie Zoldessy are as close as Libby and Herb
finally manage to be by plays' end.  Its a delight to watch them banter,
spar, argue and then, scene by scene, watch their relationship blossom. 
Not only was it an inspired idea to produce the play with a real-life
team but what a thrill it must be for both, to play to each other on
stage and them remember the moments together, off-stage.  Kellie McIvor,
as Steffy Blondell, rounds out the three person cast as the girlfriend. 
She is excellent in a small but important role and the scenes between
Herb and Steffy crackle with tension.  One asks if Herb will salvage what
could be a long and loving relationship.  One last note.  Due to
unforeseen circumstances, as mentioned in the Director's Notes, Mr.
Zoldessy needed to take on the additional responsibility as director.  He
is as talented a director as he is an actor. 
   
  I Ought To Be In Pictures will be playing through July 30th.  Don't
rent or go to the movies this weekend.  Go see this live "Pictures", an
honorable and heartfelt production.  For ticket information call
216-987-2438. 
   
   
   
       

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