Laughter and cheers echoed throughout the Dreyfuss Theatre on Nov. 19 following the opening performance of Neil Simon’s comedy, “Brighton Beach Memoirs.” The play ran from Nov. 19 to Nov. 23 and ended with a matinee performance. A modest audience was scattered among the mostly empty seats on the play’s opening night. However, the extreme lack of patronage that night did not hinder the cast’s exceptional performance of the well-known, coming-of-age comedy.
Set in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1937, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” follows the life of pubescent teen, Eugene Morris Jerome, and his Jewish family during the Great Depression. Like many families in the post-World War I era, the Jerome family struggles to make ends meet. This is especially difficult for them because Eugene’s mother, Kate, has housed her widowed sister, Blanche, along with Blanche’s daughters, ambitious 16-year-old, Nora, and hypochondriac, bookworm, Laurie. The Jerome family depends on Eugene’s father, Jack, and Eugene’s role model and older brother, Stanley, for income. These struggles create endless tensions that revolve around their unfavorable financial situation. Through thick and thin, Eugene documents his family’s struggles and triumphs in his memoirs, an outward expression of his desire to become a writer, that is, if Major League Baseball doesn’t recruit him first.
An observant and curious teen, Eugene is often the scapegoat for all of his family’s problems. In his good-hearted and humorous nature, however, Eugene is able to brush aside his unearned trouble-maker reputation as he awkwardly straddles the gap between boyhood and manhood. Throughout the play, Eugene must learn to cope with constant conflicts including his father’s illness, his aunt’s struggle for independence and his lusty, hormone-driven crush on his cousin, Nora.
Eugene was played by freshman Alexander Boruff, a film major who made his theater debut at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Both plucky and sharp, Boruff’s comedic timing as Eugene was well-executed as he tackled the traditionally taboo and unnerving topics of wet dreams and masturbation with a humorous and endearing twist. Boruff’s performance made Eugene a relatable and sympathetic character as he constantly turned to face the audience, reading directly from the most recent scribbles in his memoirs.
The portrayal of Kate Jerome by graduate student Ashley Hencken was another noteworthy performance. Played with fervor and attitude, Hencken’s Kate was exceptional as she proved to be the strong, backbone of the Jerome household.
Throughout her performance, she kept the audience chuckling as she nagged her son, Eugene, for the most trivial of things including writing too loudly and playing catch against the side of the house.
Merideth Wilson, a senior theatre major, shined as Blanche Morton. Between dating woes and a quest to keep her two daughters happy and healthy, Blanche was played as strong and enduring. Wilson’s movements as Blanche were tired and exhausted as she struggled to sew table linens. Yet throughout the performance, her voice remained strong and unwavering like her fortitude.
In her Fairleigh Dickinson University theater debut, Michele Kole played Blanche’s bookish daughter, Laurie Morton. Although Laurie can be an easily dislikable character, Kole gave her personality despite her matter-of-fact line reading. Where Kole’s vocal acting and Brooklyn accent faltered, her physical acting persisted as she sat on the living room couch, gladly being waited on hand and foot.
The setting was picturesque, featuring two stories of the Jerome household with a living room and dining room downstairs and two bedrooms on the second level. With sepia-colored photos on the wall and an old foot-pedal sewing machine, the setting was that of a late-1930s home. And though opening night presented a few lighting glitches, the performance as a whole ran smoothly.
Ending with America’s initial presence in World War II, the play and performance illustrated the life and times of a typical Great Depression-era family, complete with the laughter and tears of characters and audience members.
ELYSE FETHERMAN
Entertainment Editor
