When I first saw Visiting Mr. Green a year and a half ago at Sarasota's Asolo Theatre, what struck me most was its formulaic structure. Plays like Driving Miss Daisy and Old Wicked Songs had employed just the same strategy: Two very different characters are forced into each other's company and, after the inevitable conflict, come to respect and assist each other.
And I wasn't much more pleased with the play's middlebrow dialogue, written too often for laughs at the expense of character (Mr. Green: "That outfit you work for? American … Something." Ross: "Right. American Something. The marketing people would be so pleased.") Not that this bothered the Asolo company, which milked every joke and treated the serious subjects raised by the script (the perils of aging alone, religious orthodoxy versus secularism, being gay in a largely straight society) as so much medicine to justify the sugar coating. If author Jeff Baron had aspirations towards serious playwriting, they weren't obvious that evening.
Well, what a difference a couple of actors (and a director) make. The American Stage version of Visiting Mr. Green manages to reverse every wrong tendency in the Sarasota production with the result that the play, even with its various manipulations, actually has some moments of real power. Yes, there's still a lot missing from Mr. Green, and terribly complicated problems are still treated as if they could be solved by good-natured common sense. But Ronald J. Aulgur as Mr. Green and Brian Shea as Ross Gardiner are so impressive, so persuasive, that this production radiates humanity almost in spite of the script. What this Mr. Green is really about, in part at least, is the art of acting, its ability not only to animate a script, but also to redeem it.
The story of Mr. Green concerns young executive Gardiner, who's sentenced, after an auto mishap, to pay regular calls on the 86-year-old widower he almost ran over. At first, the elderly Green rejects this stranger's ministrations, but when he learns that Gardiner is Jewish like him, he loosens up. He teaches the irreligious younger man a few Jewish concepts, and even goes so far as to reminisce about his deceased wife. Then Green goes too far: He encourages Gardiner to find a nice girlfriend, and Gardiner counters with the information that he happens to be gay. From this pivotal moment to the end of the play there are only two significant subjects: Ross' sexuality, which Green can't understand; and a family secret of Mr. Green's, on a very different subject. By the end of the evening, some conflicts are resolved, others are left hanging, but the two men have notably affected each other's lives.
Does it sound like searching drama? Let me assure you that it's not — except in one area. When author Baron has Gardiner speak to Green about his sexuality, about the problems it's caused him, the discrimination within his own family, the anguish which has kept him from dating anyone for years — at these moments, Visiting Mr. Green drops its concern for the laughtrack and resonates with moral seriousness. Shea plays these segments with such convincing emotion, you can almost forget everything that preceded them, and just meditate on the conundrum that this character's life has become to him. And Aulgur as Green, though not granted Gardiner's eloquence, is plenty powerful when he wonders how Jewish values can be transmitted to future generations in a society of gay and unreligious Jews. This opposition — the troubled but adamant Gardiner, who's resolved not to let Mr. Green become contemptuous of him, versus the astonished Mr. Green, who imagines that Gardiner can love a woman if he'll only make the effort — is at the real core of the play, and raises it, with the actors' help, far above the level of sitcom. If author Baron had written his whole drama around this argument, he might have produced a major work in the Ibsenite tradition.
But instead, he plays it safe and easy — and so one often finds in Shea's and Aulgur's performance levels of meaning that never really occur in the script. Fortunately, those performances are so precise and multilayered that one can have quite a fine time reading between and around the lines. And fortunately, director Kenneth Noel Mitchell (American Stage's artistic director) treats the whole play like an Arthur Miller social drama, thereby mitigating the effect of the early jokes and one-liners, and preparing us for the honesty of the conflict in Act 2. Mitchell is aided by Scott Cooper's living-room-with-kitchenette set, cluttered with clothes and newspapers and realistic in every detail, from the dirty linoleum to the faded wallpaper. Amy J. Cianci's costumes speak small volumes about the two characters, and Joseph P. Oshry's lighting is, as usual, perfectly unobtrusive.
I've often praised Brian Shea's acting in this column, and I still remember Ronald J. Aulgur's fine performance as furniture appraiser Gregory Solomon in American Stage's The Price in November 1999. But Shea and Aulgur, with director Mitchell's help, have outdone themselves in Mr. Green, taking a manifestly limited script and turning it into a real opportunity for us to confront our own humanness, and the cost of our principles.
It's a pity that they don't have a more incisive play to enact here, but it's a wonder what they've done with what they've
been given.
Jobsite Jobfete. Jobsite Theater is holding its first annual Summer Fundraiser on Saturday, July 28, at the Shimberg Playhouse of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.
The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Jaeb Courtyard outside the Shimberg, with food and drinks as well as entertainment by local actor/comedian "ranney." At 8 p.m. the event moves indoors for a brief presentation and an announcement of Jobsite's 2001-02 season. Then a further announcement (content currently under wraps) will be made by musician and Tampa Bay area favorite Joe Popp.
Next, Jobsite will present a one-time only reprise of its popular comedy The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The evening will wrap up with a party at Ybor City's Silver Meteor Gallery, complete with drinks and DJs.
All tickets to the Jobsite Summer Fund-raiser are $30, and all proceeds go to benefit the Jobsite Theater. The Silver Meteor party is free with a Fundraiser ticket, or $10 at the door.
For tickets, call 813-229-STAR.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2001.