From the moment you set foot inside the Ellery Room at Lompoc's Mission Club, it's clear something is very special about this latest Lompoc Civic Theatre production.
On Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, the theater group presents a dinner theater production of On Golden Pond, the classic 1979 play written by Ernest Thompson. The play centers on Norman Thayer Jr. (Craig Scott) and his wife Ethel (Josephine Grande) who return once a year to their cabin located at Golden Pond. Here they are met by their middle-aged daughter, Chelsea (Rachel Mello) a divorcée who is visiting with her fiance, Bill Ray (John Fuentes), and his teenage son, Billy (Howard Haupt).
Rounding out the cast is Charlie (Michael Cook), a local mailman who still harbors a small crush on Chelsea, his childhood friend.
Thompson would go on to win an Academy Award for the film adaptation, which starred legendary actors Katharine Hepburn and Peter Fonda in the lead roles. Fonda and Hepburn also went on to claim Oscars for their performances, cementing the film as a classic of the era.
The film was a huge hit in 1981 when my mother took me to see it. I was about 7 years old, and I understood very little of the broader themes of the material (aging, marriage, divorce, family, etc.), but I loved it because Hepburn kept calling Fonda an "old poop" and it made me laugh every single time.
Now almost 30 years later, the play takes on an entirely new meaning. On Golden Pond is about facing our own mortality and having to do so in bodies and minds that are increasingly failing us. Norman carries the facade of a man glibly joking about death and the grim side of aging, but underneath is a deeply traumatic sadness.
Scott, a wildly brilliant actor who's also had a hilarious part in Santa Maria Civic Center's Young Frankenstein, carries Norman to his fullest potential. Scott's performance is meaty and gritty, taking the audience far away from the small setting and into the trees that dot the fictitious Golden Pond. His Norman lays the groundwork for the other actors to build from, and he makes every performance better for it.
To have a successful Norman in a production of On Golden Pond one must have an equally successful Ethel, and Grande delivers. She is the sweet-souled yet blunt counter to Norman's abject indifference. In Grande, Ethel's heartbreak is evident at every turn, even in her genuine politeness and affection. On Golden Pond works so well because the audiences believe the love the Thayers share is real, unforced by chains of committment or duty. Grande and Craig have great chemistry together, and because of that, the story works.
Haupt is impressive for such a young actor. Billy Jr. is meant to serve as a counter narrative to Norman's inner despair over his own mortality. Billy projects the right kind of hopeful youthful arrogance to spark Norman's dormant sense of competitiveness and fatherly instincts. The two are a great pairing, and Haupt shows a lot of promise as a performer.
Mello handles a difficult role with calm intensity. While Norman outwardly projects disappointment (whether intended or not) in his daughter, Chelsea is burdened with the task of somehow finding a way to please her father and simultaneously get him to acknowledge the harm he's inflicted. Mello and Scott handle their dialogue with ease, carefully letting the audience see the seams of the unspoken words behind them. Craig is excellent at giving actors room within some of his bigger moments, something that makes the play move forward so well.
I was also astounded to see how beautiful and detailed the set was. It's hard to imagine that for the rest of the week the space of the Thayer's home is a busy restaurant. Director Anne Ramsey and her team carefully curate the items used in the play to tell a story about the Thayers themselves, even in objects that are never touched by the actors. This is the home of everyone's grandparents; well-read books resting on childhood trinkets and black-and-white photos of important strangers you may never know but who helped shape who you are. This is a meaningful step the production takes that helps the audience connect with the material onstage.
Arts and Lifestyle Writer Rebecca Rose is a beautiful loon. Contact her at [email protected].
