Costumes (Dawn McKay were an attractive and appropriate mix of plaids, printed T’s and Boston sports. The cyc of blue upstage promised us seafaring and this set (Greg Trochlil) and lighting (Daniel D. Stage right is a great dock and stage left is a cramped bar which inhibited movement somewhat but Center stage is a homey kitchen that when revolved after the first scene revealed a magnificent commercial fishing boat garnering audience applause for a scene change. The proscenium is paneled with weathered wood. She never disappoints, her name in the playbill gave me a charge before the show even started. From her opening shriek to her toast to the late Norman she rivets attention in the first scene and does not let go. Damon’s presence quickens my pulse as I watch contradictory emotions played with the grace and quicksilver natural elegance of a fish swimming in her ocean home. She plays Deb, an old salt of hard-earned wisdom and advice here. Finally, the cast is rounded out by the divine Cate Damon who elevates every production she graces. Noah Tuleja arrives late in the play and has a wonderfully tense scene with Kastel. Clark hint at the playwright’s potential poetry with haunting scenes of the past. Larkin Fox plays the young Alexandra freely and without affect and her scenes with Mr. I hope that I got it right: ”God favors the man who deems himself rightfully powerless over the woman he loves.” Tom Dahl plays Sully, another competing fisherman we meet on the dock who is an old flame of Lexy’s and he bites into his townie role with relish and burps like a champ, playing joyfully with his first mate Shaun (the enjoyably dim Liam Toner). His struggle to come up with the quote that Norm left him with was genuinely touching and suspenseful. Erick Kastel as the tight-lipped Pete is a real discovery for me, conveying a weathered authenticity and reticence with great reserves of passion and grit which makes him compulsively watchable. Lexi Langs is a very welcome protagonist and can easily lead us through many of the plays turns and reversals with appealing humor, energy and intelligence. There are very bright standouts in the cast. There were motivations not thoroughly imagined but I was very appreciative of her sense of character, confrontation, dialogue and themes (greatly assisted by Danny Eaton’s direction) which would make me want to see another production of hers without a doubt. Some of the scenes didn’t have a proper end to them and the evening became longer than it needed to be, unfortunately at a critical moment where a flashback which should have gripped me and liberated Alexandra but I was just moved with pity. There were plenty of laughs from the nearly full house. Her comedic sense is well toned and she can use misdirection, humorous names, malaprops and offhand comments to great effect. The playwright has a lot going on within this Hallmark movie framework and she has a powerful emotional instinct setting up confrontations and competing interests that move the play thru the night. She quickly, and somewhat improbably, decides to spend the summer working the tuna boat with Pete and soon we are watching the sparks and fish fly. She would sell her half to Pete but he has no money. The other half is left to his fishing partner for many years, Pete (a lynchpin Erick Kastel). Clark III) from whom she has become estranged and discovers that he has bequeathed her his fishing boat…but only half of it. I am excited by this company’s production of an original romantic comedy, despite its flaws, about a young woman who struggles with her feelings of grief and inadequacy questing for an authentic life that will nourish and support her.Īlexandra (Lexi Langs in a terrific multi-faceted performance) has returned to Cape Cod to bury her tuna fisherman father Norman (played in flashback by the affecting Richard H. They are opening their 23 rd season with “The Tuna Goddess” by Jade Schuyler and directed by Danny. My first trip, I attended the Artistic Director Danny Eaton’s World Premiere of his own play “Iris” at Majestic a few season’s back in the post-holiday doldrums and I’ve returned at least a couple of times a season since charmed by this self-sufficient, thriving, workaday theater. I sometimes feel like a fisherman out trawling the waters looking for good theater. It’s the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, MA and I am always gratified that I made the hour and a half drive. There is a great theater just beyond the Capital Region that produces new work with excellent production values and is heartily supported by its community with over 4,200 subscribers.
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