Herb Gardner has written about crotchety old men ("I'm Not Rappaport") and crotchety young men ("A Thousand Clowns"). So it's no surprise that there's a crotchety character at the center of "Conversations With My Father." The character in this case, as the title suggests, is at least partly based on his own father, and the script is his richest and most psychologically complex yet.
Spanning 40 years beginning in 1936 and calling for a cast of a dozen, many of whom age accordingly, "Conversations" is a challenging play for a little theater. But under Bill Rucker's direction, the Spotlighters Theatre has mounted an engrossing, if somewhat uneven, production.
The play takes place in Eddie Ross' tavern on New York's Lower East Side. A Russian Jewish immigrant, Eddie keeps changing the tavern's decor and holding grand re-openings. But just as changing his name (from Goldberg to Ross) and trying to lose his accent won't hide his past, neither do his decorating schemes disguise a place that, as described by one of the regulars, is just "a third-rate saloon on Canal Street."
The action is narrated by Charlie Ross, Eddie's younger son -- and Gardner's alter ego -- as an adult (adequately played by Jim Moylan). On stage throughout the play, Moylan's Charlie comments on the action, translates Yiddish phrases and, in a few instances, tries to communicate with his boyhood self (Curtis Dulsimer).
But the play really belongs to Eddie -- a bitter man who berates everyone from his sweet-tempered wife (Christine LaGana) to the kindly Yiddish actor (Larry Richman) who boards with them to the unseen infant Charlie. Patrick Martyn is competent as Eddie, although a hint of a brogue sometimes slips in between Yiddish inflections, and he's too likable to be fully convincing as a man who, according to the script, lives "at the top of his voice and the edge of his nerves."
Still, Martyn leaves little doubt that Eddie's conflicted relationship with Charlie stems from an even deeper and more conflicted relationship within himself. Eddie seems convinced that the way to get ahead in America is to conceal his identity behind a veneer of assimilation or, if that fails, to come out fighting.
To that end, he encourages his older son, Joey -- played as a teen-ager by Mike Papa with warmth and spirit -- to become a boxer. But Eddie defends his heritage whenever he's confronted by anti-Semitism -- whether from an Italian racketeer demanding protection money or from street gangs whose violent acts convince him to let Joey enlist in the Navy during World War II.
Director Rucker keeps the years moving. He also has cast some strong character actors, including Richman as the Yiddish actor, Frank Greene as a tavern patron who thinks he's Santa Claus and Joan Corcoran as the blind refugee who is his constant companion. And, whether credit belongs to Rucker or choreographer Carol Cohen or boxing adviser Melvin Newby, the production features some well-choreographed fight scenes.
In the next-to-last scene, the adult Charlie may think he still doesn't understand his father, but he's disturbed to find himself behaving like him. The scene exhibits a neat but upsetting symmetry with the play's opening, suggesting Charlie has unwittingly inherited not only his father's anger but also his tendencies toward self-delusion. While Eddie Ross may have tried to overcome his heritage, "Conversations With My Father" will make every father's son -- and every mother's daughter -- take a serious look at his own.
"Conversations
With My Father"
Where: Spotlighters Theatre, 817 St. Paul St.
When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; through March 5
Tickets: $8 and $9
Call: (410) 752-1225
** 1/2