"Prefers vacuuming"
Osterville Attorney Runs Off with Club's 'Odd Couple'
The Register, April 25, 1968
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Play review
THE ODD COUPLE by Neil Simon:
Cast -
Richard Arms,
Louis Jacobucci,
Jonathan Flynn,
Edward Bender,
John Alger,
Louis Carey.
Joan Baker,
Christina Flynn,
directed by
Isobel Grassle.
This Friday and Saturday nights are the last performances of the most polished play recently performed by the Barnstable Comedy Club.
The polish is due to direction by Isobel Grassle, which could be expected; performance by Louis Cary, which was expected; and a characterization by John Alger which Is a pure gift.
Mr. Alger plays one-half of the Odd Couple.
The other half is Mr. Cary (who does everything, including drawing the playbill cover above).
The program notes say Mr. Alger is the BCC's lawyer, but because of lack of time the part of Oscar Madison is his first lead ln a major production.
Oscar is a divorced slob who takes a fellow divorcee-elect Into his bachelor apartment.
Felix Unger (Mr. Cary) turns out a hypochondrlal fussbudget with egocentric sucldal psychoses.
In other words, he's a Jerk.
The play works on mounting tension on this unlikely cohabitation.
Oscar's idea of normality Is a slovenly poker game to earn his wife's alimony and a night with the girls upstairs.
Felix prefers vacuuming
the apartment, clearing his bronchial tubes, and serving an I immaculate Italian dish. fc
Spaghetti, says Oscar. j
Linguia, corrects Felix. I
Oscar heaves the dish into the 1 dtchen. |
Garbage, says Oscar.
In this nearly two-roie piay, Mr. Cary plays stylishly straight nut to Mr. Alger's wlltlngly funny bolt.
Without Mr. Cary. the other supporting players and the high pitch of professionalism drawn from the club as a whole, Mr. Alger couldn't have stolen the show.
A one set show, the play depends heavily on stage business.
Even this most difficult of exercises works to perfection.
Oscar unbuttoning his shirt, spilling his beer, walking on the sofa, all take place with studied naturalness.
But ln the end it is the Wallace Beery grin, the slightly understated comedy lines, and flawless pace that keep Mr, Alger In charge.
If anything, the holds at last Friday's sellout performance weren't long enough to accommodate the laughts, an enviable problem.
But if Mr. Alger Is stuck with the image of Oscar, his law practice can only suffer, which would be a nice break for the Comedy Club and for Cape theater-goers. H.R.
Amalia's Story, Chapter Sixty-Seven
= Amalia Angeloni Jacobucci
1000 Characters About My Mother #20:
"My father took a shower with me, and I turned out just fine!"
"What?!"
"What?"
"What you said?"
"I didn't say anything. Where were we?"
"Where were who? When?"
"Where were you and I, on what date did you and I leave off last week? In our chronology of my mother's life story? Keep up!"
"Um . . . July 1966. The Cub Scouts."
"October 13, 1966 . . . The regular meeting of the Go-Getter's Mothers Club will be held Oct. 19 at 8 p.m. at the elementary school . . . Apparently there was a mothers' group in place of a Parent-Teacher Association . . . the Go-Getters Club . . . Mrs. Louis J. Jacobucci will be the speaker of the evening. Mrs. Jacobucci Is district executive of the Cape Cod District of the MSPCC. This will be an open meeting and promises to be an interesting one. Guests are cordially invited to attend from any of the surrounding villages."
"So? What of it?"
"Mrs. Jacobucci Is district executive of the Cape Cod District of the MSPCC?"
"I'm sure it's just a typo. Move on."...
"What?!"
"I didn't say anything."
"How can you say such a thing?"
"I'm not going through this again."
"What do you mean?"
"All this -- denial. I'm done. I'm just going to say exactly what happened as I remember it."
"It never happened!"
"The reason I know it happened is that I renember it. I was eight years old. My brother was twelve years old. I was able to recover the date because I remember at some point in the week preceding the event, our father for some reason had told us, I'm going to be speaking at the Unitarian Church this Sunday at 11:00. It did not seem weird to me at the time, because he was always out of the house anyway. Plus all he used to when he was home was harangue me, so good."
"You lie."
"In fact, I remember thinking, it made sense that he would get something going on Sundays, because that was the only time he was ever even around anymore. Weekdays he was working, of course, and weeknights he was always at one of his many, many important community activities."
"You are delusional."
"Then, I found this article, and it all ...
"I have a thesis. My thesis is: In any woman's life, having children would have to be the most significant event. So, in my mother's story -- "
"Her family wasn't really any different from any of the other families."
"Yes."
"In what way?"
"She and her husband were both very active in community affairs. Both her children went to school."
"What else?"
"They were both boys?"
"Anything else?"
"No. That's it."
"So you said, that one way in which your mother's family wasn't really any different from any of the other families, was that she and her husband were both very active in community affairs. Can you tell me a little more about that?"
"Oh, sure. There was always something going on. Cub Scouts, she was like Den Mother of her older son's Cub Scout Pack. Pack 54. Plus the Comedy Club. Plus I'm pretty sure, she was involved in the kindergarten. She and her husband both. And politics. It was the Sixties."
"Just normal 60's Mom stuff."
"In any case, it's time to forget the past."
