There’s a heavy dose of sardonic humor in the plays of Edward Albee. A lot of greed in his characters, too, and considerable casual denigration of minorities and others. It’s almost constant in "Everything in the Garden," his American adaptation of a play by English writer Giles Cooper. It opened over the weekend as a Stray Dog Theatre production at the Tower Grove Abbey, to run through June 20.
The play is set in 1967, but it starts like a 1927 Model T, in fits and starts, with rattles, coughs and wheezes, threatening to die on several occasions before it finally catches. Unfortunately, the stuttering script forces the actors into a similar situation, led by Julie Layton and Charlie Barron, as Jenny and Richard, respectively. They are debating – arguing, if you prefer – about money, or the lack of it, while discussing their friends, their club, a greenhouse for their garden and their son, at an exclusive prep school.
When Richard leaves, Mrs. Toothe (a solid Donna Weinsting) arrives and injects some life into the action; she offers Jenny a job and while she never actually describes it, there is not much left to the imagination with promises of good money and easy daytime hours while working near home.
Suddenly (well, six months later), they’re rolling in greenbacks (enough bills as though payment was being made in ones and fives) and they invite some neighbors for a party, and it isn’t long before the learning process begins. One evil step leads to others, of course, and the primrose path becomes a freeway leading to a slough of despond.
Mostly, however, "Everything in the Garden," is in a drought situation. It is far from being among Albee’s better plays, and director Gary F. Bell’s casting includes too many people who don’t physically fit the roles and who are not experienced enough to provide damage control. Both Layton and Barron have their moments, and Justin Ivan Brown is strong as Jack, a philosopher-friend whose bachelor status keeps him out of the morass, but who appears far too young to have acquired as much wisdom as he offers.
At the Tower Grove Abbey through June 20.
-Joe