[NEohioPAL] Preview of "On Golden Pond" at Rabbit Run Theater

[Bob Abelman]

Find a 'Golden Pond' in Madison Township

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald 6/4/10

 

Norman and Ethel Thayer have spent the last 48 summers at their cabin on Golden Pond. However, in the tender drama in which these endearing characters reside, opening this evening at the Rabbit Run Theater in Madison Township, all the seasons are significant.

 

In On Golden Pond, the elderly Ethel and Norman are visited by their 42 year old daughter Chelsea, the newly divorced man she has been dating, and his 14 year old son named Billy Ray.  Billy Ray is left with the Thayers as his father and Chelsea take off for a tour of Europe.

 

Norman, the quintessential grumpy old man, is turning 80 and is most certainly in the winter of his discontent as he faces a failing heart, a faulty memory and his own mortality.  Daughter Chelsea-unmarried, in the autumn of her life, and fraught with animosity over the loving father/daughter relationship she never had-desperately seeks a connection with Norman. The teenaged Billy Ray, in the Spring of his youth, cannot see beyond his parents' separation and the confusion it has generated.   

 

"Each scene is a month later in what may be the Thayers' last time at Golden Pond," notes Stephen Rhodes, director of the Rabbit Run production.  "As the play progresses, we sense that time is running out for whatever resolutions might need to happen.  The one entity that doesn't change-that is the anchor for these transitioning characters-is Golden Pond itself."

 

Many know On Golden Pond as the 1981 Academy Award-winning film of the same name.  It featured Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn as Norman and Ethel, and Jane Fonda as Chelsea.

 

"What surfaces in this script and is somewhat lost in the film version," suggests Rhodes, "is how poignantly funny this drama is.  That's what we have been stressing in our production.  There is the danger of being maudlin on some of the subject matter.  That we avoided at all costs."

 

In fact, Ethel's eternal optimism, sense of humor and delight in the simple joys of life keeps this play and its characters from taking themselves too seriously.  The role of Ethel is being played by Rabbit Run veteran Patty Page, who was most recently seen in The Whales of August and The Cemetery Club. 

  

Joe Petrolia, who appeared in last year's Rabbit Run production of Broadway Bound, portrays Norman. 

  

Rounding out the rest of the cast is Kitty O'Shea as Chelsea, Tom Milligan as Chelsea's boyfriend, Bill Ray, Fairport Harding High School student Zachary Janouskovec as Billy Ray, and Larry Gasch as Charlie the mailman. 

 

Rabbit Run Theater celebrates its 30th consecutive summer stock season with the Thayers on Golden Pond.  You are cordially invited to join them.

 

Details

 

What:     On Golden Pond

When:    Today through June 12.

Where:   Rabbit Run Theater, 5648 W. Chapel Rd., Madison Township. 

Tickets:  $15 to $17

Info:       440-428-7092 or at www.rabbitrunonline.org.



Reader:  Feedback is most certainly welcome.  Go to:  

www.news-herald.com/articles/2010/06/04/life/nh2580110.txt


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