| Published
Saturday
August 30, 2003
Review:
Actor Filbert 'flawless' in 'Visiting Mr. Green'
BY JIM DELMONT
WORLD-HERALD
STAFF WRITER
The 2003-04 theater season has just begun, but already there is
a performance that may vie for top acting honors - that of Norman
Filbert in the title role in SNAP Productions' "Visiting Mr.
Green."
Filbert, who is in his 70s, plays an 86-year-old widower, an elderly
Jewish man in New York, who is visited weekly by the young man who
almost ran him down with his auto.
Filbert's performance
is flawless, an essay in stage acting that surpasses even his famous
role in "On Golden Pond" at different venues in past years.
His timing, his sense of character, his voice, are all perfectly
tuned to this odd but thoroughly human little man, whose life is
turned around by interaction with Ross, the only other character
in Jeff Baron's tidy little play.
In two evenly
balanced acts, "Visiting Mr. Green" offers an amusing
friendship in the first act and some volatile and dramatic moments
in the second, as both characters are driven to reveal painful truths
about themselves.
Michal Simpson,
who is just about perfect as Ross, has some big moments in the second
act when the kindly younger man, ordered by the court to visit Mr.
Green once a week (bringing kosher groceries, among other tasks),
reveals that he can't have a wonderful marriage such as the one
enjoyed by Mr. Green for 59 years, because he is gay.
Green, in turn
- so crinkly and kindly - is revealed to be intolerant, not so much
of gays as of non-Jews. Strictly conservative, he has cut himself
off from a relative who married outside the Jewish religion and
is his only surviving relative.
Shuffling around
in shabby clothes, trembling and vulnerable, Filbert's Mr. Green
is a memorable triumph for this veteran actor. Often when actors
play old people, they overdo it. But Filbert brilliantly underplays
his lines, never mugging, always subtle, perfectly in tune with
Baron's script, which is reminiscent of other fine little plays,
such as A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters."
In its intimacy,
this warm, humorous little show is a good match for the small SNAP-Shelterbelt
theater, with its audience on top of the action. Jan Reardon's direction
and pacing are just right, and Nancy Ross' period costumes fit the
1950s setting perfectly, as does the set by Nichole Hawkins and
Jeff Nelson.
Interestingly,
the Omaha Community Playhouse will do "Mr. Green" in a
few weeks - but it is difficult to imagine a better "Mr. Green"
than this one.
Filbert
at his finest in 'Visiting Mr. Green'
WARREN FRANCKE , For the Nonpareil 09/04/2003
If you see Norm Filbert walking the mall, bow deeply in his direction.
The man who founded Chanticleer more than a half century ago has
capped his acting career with a brilliant title role in "Visiting
Mr. Green."
It runs through
Sept. 21 as a SNAP production at the Shelterbelt Theater, near 33rd
Street on California, a few blocks north of Mutual of Omaha. That's
not the prettiest piece of Omaha, but it's the only place you'll
see one of the most memorable performances of this or any season.
Lest we sound
too reverent, here's some perspective: This reviewer has known and
appreciated Filbert's work for nearly 50 years. But I didn't expect
to see him match or top his performances as Elwood P. Dowd in "Harvey,"
the dying father in "Tribute" or the old curmudgeon in
"On Golden Pond."
But now, about
60 years after his graduation from Abraham Lincoln High School,
the kid from Council Bluffs may be enjoying his finest hours on
stage.
He plays Mr.
Green, 86, a Jewish man alone in his apartment after the death of
his wife. He's visited only by a young man (Michal Simpson), required
by a judge to come weekly after nearly running Green down with his
speeding car.
Especially in
Act One, Filbert gets the best of Jeff Baron's script, but Simpson
does well with reactions to the old man's minimal lifestyle. An
otherwise impressive script and a typically strong performance by
Simpson are marred by an Act Two tirade, when Simpson's character,
Ross Gardiner, rages against Mr. Green's intolerant response to
his struggle with being gay.
There's plenty
in the old man's behavior to justify a strong response, but it doesn't
work to have the young man screaming in the face of a feeble octogenarian.
Ross faced the bigotry of his own father and much younger folks
and might be more discouraged and disgusted than loudly outraged.
And that's the
only complaint for a play complete with wonderful lines, an apt
setting, a good performance by Simpson and a magnificent one by
Filbert. It's my practice to quote a few touches of dialogue to
capture the playwright's style, but the timing directed by Jan Reardon
and the nuances of the two actors makes it harder than usual to
recreate.
Suffice it to
say that Filbert's Mr. Green gets most of the Act One laughs with
his responses to the younger man's reluctant but earnest efforts
to bring food and clean up the apartment strewn with sections of
the New York Times. The relationship warms when Green asks, "So
you're Jewish? Vy didn't you tell me."
Their bond breaks
when Ross tries to explain his struggle with being gay, which Mr.
Green finds unacceptable. "Jewish boys aren't fagilas,"
he insists.
Then Ross discovers
the old man's secret, his rejection of a loved one on religious
grounds, and reveals evidence that his devoted late wife didn't
share Green's intolerance.
The darker side
of this drama gives way, finally, to heartwarming reunion.
And the quality
of the production, from the unkempt apartment setting to Filbert's
flawless performance, never fails Baron's remarkable script. Props
specialist Rhonda Hall supported the scenic work of Nichole Hawkins
and Jeff Nelson with everything from 23 Manhattan phone books to
four empty Triscuit boxes. And a seemingly endless supply of take-out
kosher soup.
What remains
vivid in memory, though, is Norm Filbert's every nuance in the title
role. Dialogue and movement seem born of the character's 86 years
of repetition, not an actor's design.
For example,
when he reaches to touch the mezuzah (sacred artifact) in the doorway,
it's always the automatic habit of a lifetime, not a conscious act.
Each tremor, each word of anger, resignation or awakening awareness
adds to one's appreciation of this consummate creation. Don't miss
it.
It's fortunate
for the Omaha Community Playhouse that their upcoming version of
"Visiting Mr. Green" has William Hutson in the title role.
He may be the only man in the metropolitan area who can come close
to Filbert's triumph.
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