Fighting the
aging process is a multibillion dollar industry, and as a country we are
OBSESSED with aging.
People are fighting so hard to look and feel younger and that battle wages
onward and will continue ad infinitum. However, what is the REAL battle
with aging? In playwright Eric Coble’s new play, THE VELOCITY OF
AUTUMN, not only does he try to answer that question, but he also brings you to
the brink of an ACTUAL battle.
In
his play, so smartly directed by Molly Smith, Coble opens the story of an aging
artist, Alexandra, who has barricaded herself inside her home and is engaged in
a standoff with her children who are trying to get her to move into a nursing
home facility, due to moments of mental lapses.
To cement her position, she has surrounded herself with a menagerie of
Molotov cocktails, while holding her father’s antique lighter in her hands to
ignite them and blow up the family home and subsequently the neighborhood. Her youngest and prodigal child, Chris,
climbs a tree and enters the home and tries to convince her to peacefully
surrender to the inevitable. This is when
the battle starts.
Alexandra,
played ferociously by Academy Award winning and 4 time Tony nominated actress
and stage legend, Estelle Parsons, proves that the war on aging is not going to
take her without a fight. Her range of
emotions to deal with the fight to remain in her home, her right mind, and with
her independence, varies from lucid to pure rage. As she refuses the calls of two of her
children, it is her third child, Chris, played with beauty and reverence by 2
time Tony winning actor, Stephen Spinella, who has a chance. It is very clear that as the story unfolds
and the generational battle rages on, Chris is the child most like
Alexandra. As he tries to reason with
his mother to leave her home and not blow up the neighborhood, many of his own
issues with his siblings, his mother, and even himself come to the forefront. Together, Alexandra and Chris create a verbal
pas de deux of anger, regret, and accusations all underscored by the true love
of mother and son, and the possibility of an explosion.
In VELOCITY
OF AUTUMN, playwright Eric Coble weaves together a charged and touching piece.
Anyone with an aging parent or anyone who is an aging parent will understand
the concerns and questions that Alexandra and Chris bring to the table of
discussion. Eugene Lee’s smart set
design helps to tell the visual aspects of the story with simplicity, and Molly
Smith uses her skillful eye as director and dramaturge to help make this story
relatable to all of us who at one time or another may have to face these very
issues. It is probably an easier task to
do considering that they have Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella, two of the
best actors working on stage today to make the story so believable. I hope that the Tony Award nominating
committee feels the same way. If you
love to see great acting, then you must try and see this show before its
limited Broadway engagement ends.
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