Good Thing
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Voy, Lancaster
Photo by Jessica Webster
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By Joseph N. Feinstein
Among the many thoughts racing through my mind while watching a production of
Good Thing by Jessica Goldberg at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre last Thursday included: What's a nice Jewish lady doing writing a play like this? Why are all six characters in the play so hurtful, so mean, so dumb, so unimaginative? Why is this audience of twenty and thirty-year olds laughing when these characters utter profanities and scream at one another? How can two people consume a dozen bottles of "beer" in five minutes on stage with an audience who apparently identifies and approves such behavior? When will any "good thing" happen anywhere in this play?
The press release sent to theater critics described this play as a "comedy...which gives lyrical voice to those who are at a loss for direction and desperate for a sense of meaning and fulfillment - in other words, all of us some of the time and some of us all of the time."
In it, we meet Nancy (Julie Lancaster) and John (Derek Voy), a school counselor husband who can hardly string two or more words together with his wife, who shows erratic jealousy when he greets an old student with a hug.
Then the play shifts to another home where Bobby (David Weidoff) is living with his friends, Mary (Dara Goldman) and Dean (Dylan Osean). Bobby is strung out on crack or coke; Mary is in her eighth month, though married for seven, and is kept locked in a different room by her college dropout husband who is carrying a secret torch for his erstwhile sweetheart, Liz (Kaily Smith) who, you'll remember, hugged John in the first scene. These three bring to the play such "good things" as addiction, adultery, alcoholism and animalistic antics, all so necessary to good relationships. The lighting, by Trevor Burk, and the set of a cluttered, ugly apartment by Carlos del Aguila and Carlos Baez adds greatly to the mood of despair, degradation, and debasement of the characters.
Between the epithets, violent outbursts, rantings, and ravings of almost all the characters, we notice blurred speech, inaudible asides, unclear remarks, and, in general, no believable emoting from any of the actors. Perhaps it was a bad night, but director, B. Swibel may not have been all there himself when guiding his actors in their scenes. No director worthy of his title could be accepting of such poor articulation by an actor. There was only one Brando.
There is one most definite truth uttered in the play as Liz looks around the shattered room of her friends, Mary and Dean, and says, "This is a nightmare!" Yes, Liz, this play was that, indeed. But, in all fairness, those twenty and thirty-year olds would most likely have a different opinion. Go judge for yourself.
Good Thing Hudson Mainstage Theatre 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood 90038
Tel. 323-960-7735 Tickets $20 Runs until Feb. 25
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