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JAKE’S WOMEN
By Neil Simon
Essendon Theatre Company
Directed by Kris Weber
Reviewed by Bruce Cochrane – 7 April 2006
As appearing in Theatrecraft May 2006 edition.
In his second book of memoirs ‘The Play Goes On’ Neil Simon tells us: “I wrote the play ‘Jake’s Women’ to do the impossible. Years after Joan’s death (his first wife), my daughter Nancy expressed to me a wish that she had for a long time.” (The wish was that she could have some time with her mother now that she was older, even just one day.) “Of course, no one was able to grant Nancy that wish but I wanted to give it a try.”
As with most of Neil Simon’s writing this draws on his personal life mixing comedy and pathos and by virtue of its structure is a fairly complex piece of theatre.
Switching back and forth in time it asks the audience to recognise that what we are seeing is mostly Jake’s imagination abruptly punctuated by real time encounters with the women in his life. This presents some challenges.
With the task of overseeing the principal role of Jake and a cast of seven females, director Kris Weber also took on playing one of the characters herself.
The cast all handled their roles capably and it would be fair to say that the more experienced the actor the more they brought to their performance.
In the big and demanding part of Jake, Jim Thomson showed that he was equal to the task. His stagecraft was apparent in his economy of moves and gestures, he was always on top of his words and his accent was entirely consistent. The role calls for a wide range of emotion, which Jim handled well. His performance could have been even more effective had he been assured that the anger and distress he was conveying did not need as much strident aggressive yelling. Jim was at his best when his projection was at a modulated more natural level.
In the important role of Maggie, Jake’s present wife, Jeanne Snider was a pleasure to watch. This was a very smooth performance in which Jeanne walked a tightrope between humour and real sadness. Her ability to listen to others and react appropriately helped immeasurable to engage us in the intimacy of the crumbling relationship with Jake.
Faced with the need to prove some distinction between the remaining female roles, Kris Weber made some interesting decisions. The characters of Karen, Jake’s sister, and of his analyst Edith were the most obvious to exaggerate for comedy, both wearing dreadful wigs and bizarre dress. In playing Edith as an over the top sexpot in skimpy attire, Kris used the stage very confidently and romped around uninhibitedly for the sake of laughs. Playing her as upper class English seemed a little odd but was also good for a laugh. Dawn Hinrichsen put plenty of energy into the part of Karen and was sometimes overbusy with facial expressions and gestures.
The danger here was that when Jake’s fantasy turned to farce the switch to then combine zany characters with some sort of reality produced a jarring effect.
As Jake’s deceased wife Julie, Christina Kyriakou showed warmth and understanding of her place in Jake’s mind. Her stage moves though, left her a little disconnected from Jake at times.
Cat Billingham moved nicely and looked the part of Jake’s new romantic interest, Jessica Taurins spoke and listened well as Molly aged 13 and as Molly aged 21 Aminee Majid communicated an important sincerity and focus in dealing with adults who were not always open with her.
The abstract set design was functional and, given the limitations of this venue, lighting and sound were well executed by Michael Bentley.
Throughout the play choice of dress was tasteful, smart and suited to the characters and their situation.
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