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On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson
Directed by Mel de Bono for Sunshine Community Theatre
Reviewed by Ron Little 1997
On Golden Pond has been a popular play with the theatre companies and audiences since Jane Fonda saw it on Broadway in 1979, and bought the film rights for her father, Henry Fonda. He made the film with Katherine Hepburn and his daughter Jane, and I believe he won the Academy Award for his performance, not long before he died.
The family theme, and particularly the father's character make good box office. The key situation is the Thayer's daughter's visit with her new male friend and his teenage son.
The living room of the old couple's summerhouse at Golden Pond, Maine, is the setting. As depicted on Sunshine's stage, it is sumptuous, as would be the case with wealthy Americans. Director Mel de Bono's design and execution is highly commendable. Most productions have only one window, this one has two, which made the view of the pond seem larger. As it provides the title, I think some designers could exploit it more than it usually is, and this one established the point.
The first character we meet is the irascible Norman Thayer, played by Allan Mudford, adding to his outstanding successes in recent productions. I think his performance will grow during the season, and turn it from an excellently detailed imitation of an old man into an effective characterisation. The rehearsal value of performances will help there.
Pat Agyeman as Ethel Thayer spoke with a pleasantly modulated voice, but tended to allow the ends of her sentences to fall away. This was coupled with the fact that she should have replied more sharply to many of Norman's comments and not to be too laid back. She does not buckle under to him. I feel that this weakened her characterisation and flattened the highpoints in some of their dialogue. Nevertheless, Ethel had some very good moments, the best being during Norman's heart attack and generally her scenes with daughter Chelsea.
Steven Unsworth gave some fine comedy touches as Charlie Martin ‘the laughing mailman.' He certainly has a flare for producing spontaneous stage laughter.
Kris Weber does not appear until late in the play, and the part is lacking generally in acting opportunities, but her main speech, berating her father for making her play sport as a child, was quite a highlight of the production.
As her new dentist boyfriend, Bill Ray, Haydn Gibson, also has limited acting opportunities, but he projects a pleasing personality and looked well in period dressing.
As his son, Billy, Luke Francis does well. Many teenage boys act naturally, but fail to project their voices. Once or twice he lost some lines through under-projection or speaking too fast, but this was the exception. Generally his voice was well modulated.
The salient fault of the production, when I viewed it, was that it was far too long. I believe that was partly due to some cues not being picked up quickly enough, but the main reason was the length of the breaks between the scenes.
Today, most groups change sets in semi-darkness in full view of the audience, perhaps with music playing. Some people may not like this, but even if the play is not advancing, it focuses the attention of the audience on the stage when the action resumes and the scene changes do not seem as long. Once an Act starts there really should not be any stop. Dialogue or action may stop; but something else should take over.
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