Growing up Catholic in Buffalo is a lot like growing up Catholic in St. Louis. Writing a play about it offers the opportunity to take the usual cheap shots at the church; you know, fish on Friday, nuns using rulers as weapons and threats of eternal Hell to keep order. The large Polish population of Buffalo also allows playwright Tom Dudzick to create comic lines about Poles whose last names end in "ski."
His "Over The Tavern," which opened last night at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis last night, is occasionally funny, but too often paints Catholic schools and teaching nuns in an old-fashioned manner. The mid-90s comedy, one of the very few plays to rate a repeat production at the Rep, uses much of the same scenario written by Christopher Durang in "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You," which opened in 1979, and in "Late Night Catechism," by Vicki Quade and Maripat Donovan, which dates to 1993.
Rudy Pazinski, our precocious 12-year-old hero (good work by Spencer Davis Milford), is a questioning type, but his inquiries about God, good, Heaven, Hell and other topics disturb the rigid thinking of Sister Clarissa (solid Darrie Lawrence), and of Rudy's father, saloon-owner Chet (strong Kevin Cutts). He's a baby-step shy of being a physically abusive husband and parent, but he more than makes up for it with emotionally abusive assaults on his wife and three of his four children. The sole escapee is Georgie (cute Braden Phillips), the youngest, who is emotionally challenged (his family describes him as "retarded"). But Dudzick, reaching for the cheap giggle, has Georgie shout out "Shit!" at inopportune moments.
That reminded me of the story of a Washington high-society wife telling Bess Truman that she should warn her husband about the overuse of the word "manure," causing her to reply, "You don't know long it's taken me to get him to use that word instead of the other one."
The other children, Eddie (a properly surly Eric Nelsen), probably a high school senior, and Annie (a splendidly nervous and confused Katie McClellan), about a year younger, seemed too old for their characters, and their mother, Ellen (a charming, rich, warm performance by Celeste Ciulla) was extremely puzzling to me. How a trim, pretty, curvaceous woman like she could have spent nearly 20 years with a slob like Chet was beyond me.
Michael Evan Haney's direction was strong, but I thought scenic designer Paul Shortt needed something like a wall, or the appearance of a wall, to separate the rooms of the Pazinskis' apartment. The kitchen and living room (it has the TV set) fill stage right (audience left) but the actors' movements keep the two rooms separate. Stage left (audience right) has the bedroom shared by Rudy and Georgie, with all the proper photos and magazine covers on the wall, but it kept intruding on the living room. Every time someone sat in the easy chair, I expected him/her to go sliding into the bedroom. Dorothy Marshall Englis did her usual simple, effective costume design.
There are laughs, but I don't think there are enough to outweigh the demeaning attitude that Dudzick displays. "Over The Tavern" is under the Rep's usually high standard of plays.
Over The Tavern, by Tom Dudzick, opened last night at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, to run through Dec. 26
—Joe
Comments
3 responses
I have been a season ticket holder at the Rep for about a decade. I generally agree with Joe’s reviews. However in this case I totally disagree. Over The Tavern is one of the best productions I have seen in years. Joe must be getting grumpy.
I highly don’t recommend this. Both of the women over acted throughout, and the 15 minute (or so it seemed) discussion on forgetting the spaghetti is anything but an upbeat pace. If you aren’t over 65, many of the jokes will be missed. If you aren’t ardently religious, you’ll miss another good chunk of jokes. The ones that were good, were also pretty obvious and you could see them coming. It’s been less than 12 hours since I got done watching the show, and I can’t remember a single joke. That was a tough 3 hours, and in the end I was just glad it was over.
While billed as a comedy, I think the play was more of a satire. Viewed in such a light, I think the play was enjoyable. I doubt it would resonate much with audience members who were not raised Catholic (and less so, religious). I would agree with many of Joe’s critiques: Georgie seemed unresolved or out of place, the set was confusing at times, Chet and Ellen were overly juxtaposed, ect. However, I did not think the play was too “demeaning”, but that it offered a meaningful reflection on how the Catholic Church has struggled with questioning of its practices and doctrines.