The Snow Geese
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Cititour.com Review
Is it Ibsen? Is it Chekhov? No, as it happens, The Snow Geese, now bowing at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, is the work of current-day dramatist Sharr White. However, audiences can easily be forgiven for the confusion – and not just because of the title. Indeed, this rather puzzling period drama not only liberally borrows elements and themes from the work of those two great masters, it also feels like at times like a weird flashback episode of TV’s “Weeds.”
The latter bit of déjà vu comes primarily from the casting of the always watchable Mary Louise Parker (the star of that former Showtime series), who is cast once again as a financially strapped widow raising two troubled sons. But – spoiler alert – her character, Elisabeth Gesling, does not resort to selling marijuana to bolster the family fortunes. Instead, she mostly dithers about the spectacular hunting lodge (another extraordinary creation by Tony winner John Lee Beatty) in her 1917 widow’s weeds (by the fabulous Jane Greenwood) acting more like Chekhov’s obtuse Madame Ranevskaya than the resourceful Nancy Botwin.
When the going gets tough, she usually just takes to her bed. True, she sometimes fawns over her eldest, rakish son Duncan (a well-cast Evan Jongkeit) who’s about to go off to fight World War I in France, or spars with her realistic, disappointed younger child Arnold (an effective Brian Cross), who has revealed the unhappy truth about his clan’s dwindling finances. She also periodically argues with her pious elder sister Clarissa (the excellent Victoria Clark), flirts a tad with Clarissa’s husband Max (the very fine Danny Burstein), a doctor whose German ancestry has destroyed his entire livelihood, and even dreams once about her late husband Teddy (Christopher Innvar), a charmer who apparently had an appetite for sext but no head for money. Now and then, she actually says something that matters. But not very often.
If all of this sounds more than a tad Chekhovian – never mind the gun in the first act that will go off in the second, or the presence of Viktorya (the aptly named Jessica Love), the formerly wealthy Ukranian girl who is now serving as the family maid – you’re right. But White, who penned the riveting “The Other Place,” never comes close to deeply exploring the foibles of humans the way the great Russian playwright did. Indeed, the piece too often seems like a classroom exercise in which White was asked to write a Chekhovian play than an organic drama.
Even the usually infallible director Daniel Sullivan fails to work his customary magic, relying on bits of showy staging and a few bouts of shouting to create what little excitement he can. Given their past work, one expects a far better Snow job from Sullivan and much a tastier meal from White than the fowl play that’s being served.
[Photo (top) by Joan Marcus]
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://thesnowgeesebroadway.com
Cast
Mary-Louise Parker, Danny Burstein, Victoria Clark, Evan Jonigkeit, Brian Cross, Christopher Innvar, Jessica Love
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/1/2013
Closing 12/15/2013
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
New York, NY 10036
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