Friday, November 21, 1997
‘Social Security’ is in need of reform
THEATER: Even talented acting cannot salvage Bergman’s poor
script
By Sam Toussi
Daily Bruin Contributor
What a horrible thing it is to be an actor. To stand onstage at
the complete mercy of the audience. And when the play is not up to
par, it is the actor who must stand and bear the brunt of
criticism.
Somebody behind the scenes of Theatre Forty’s production of
Andrew Bergman’s "Social Security," running through Dec. 17,
horribly failed the actors.
The play centers around an art-dealing couple, Barbara (Amy Beth
Cohn) and David (James Lurie), whose life and marriage seem near
perfect. That is, until Barbara’s sister, Trudy (Marika Becz), and
her husband, Martin (Charles Green), come from Long Island to tell
them that they can no longer take care of Barbara and Trudy’s aging
mother, Sophie (Dorothy Sinclair), and that their daughter, Sarah,
has become a sex maniac who enjoys having sex with many men at the
same time and loves it when they cum on her breasts. Comedy
ensues.
Cohn is the heart and soul of the play, and she is utterly
enjoyable to watch. Her supple face is just perfect for the angst,
panic and sly cockiness inherent in her character. She also keeps
the audience rolling with her character in spite of serious
unlikable qualities.
In the first act, Barbara dreads the notion of her mother
staying with her as if her mother were a plague. Despite the
nastiness of the first act, Cohn keeps the play moving and close to
the audience.
Lurie complements Cohn well and has fine moments himself. His
character gets all the one-liners but at the same time, he is
irrepressibly smug. Lurie’s character is so complacent that it’s
hard for the audience to empathize with him, but Lurie carries it
off. He finds real moments in between the one-liners and makes his
superficial character seem tangible.
Becz and Green are wonderful – tightly wound as the complete
opposites of Barbara and David’s free, liberal marriage. They are
good comic actors, but they never play their ridiculous actions
like they really mean them. When Trudy says that she calls her
daughter at college twice a day, it’s obvious Becz thinks that is
ridiculous. That leaves both their characters a little false.
Sinclair, as Sophie, is a delight. Her transformation takes the
sting out of the nasty, old-people-hating first act. Though
Sinclair plays the part well, her character is nothing but a
stereotype: an old woman who knows what’s going on but who everyone
else thinks she’s oblivious of. This takes away from the climax of
the play. It’s really no fault of Sinclair’s. She plays the part
with all the verve and wisdom that is to be expected.
It turns out that this play was Andrew Bergman’s debut. It
shows. Though he would go on to write some wonderful screenplays
like "Blazing Saddles" and "The Freshman," his inexperience as a
writer really shows here.
It’s a mystery why Theatre Forty would pick a piece like this.
The play moves like a car with the parking brake down and often
discusses one topic into the ground. Characters are stock and not
people. The play feels like a thousand other plays.
Unfortunately, it’s a dry well.
The production deserves an A-minus, but the play itself deserves
a C-minus. The script leaves the actors onstage with very little to
work with, and though the play makes a profound point about living
life as opposed to watching it fly by, it takes an hour and a half
to get to that point. By that time, the audience has lost
interest.
No actor, no matter how talented, can remedy that.
THEATER: "Social Security" runs Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
through Dec. 17. Tickets are $12. For information, call
213-876-8980.Theatre Forty
Stars of Bergman’s "Social Security."