By Anita Raymon
“The Late Christopher Bean,” by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, Sidney Howard, is the winter presentation by Saint Gregory's Theatre Group of Bellerose at Gregorian Hall. The inclement weather did not affect St. Greg's loyal audiences this weekend, who gave the play a great reception.
Greed is the motif of Howard' s play: all-encompassing greed, which changes honest, upstanding people into manipulative fighters, with the prospect of great wealth gained at other peoples' expense. The play was written during the 1930s, when America was in the midst of the Great Depression. It is a morality tale whose characters learn the bitter lesson that “all that glitters is not gold.”
The work focuses on the lives of the Haggett family, living in 1930s Boston, filled with mayhem, mystery and intrigue. It begins when Dr. Milton Haggett is seated at the table eating his breakfast. Haggett is very anxious that patients are not paying their bills because they do not have the money. His weekly income is dwindling badly.
He is startled to receive a telegram from a man named Davenport, whom he doesn't know at all, who is coming that day to speak to him on an urgent matter. What can this possibly be about?
That October day is when Abby, the Haggett's trusted housekeeper for the past 15 years is leaving for Chicago, to look after her brother and his children, who have been left without a mother. Abby holds a number of secrets about the late Christopher Bean's life and work; when he used to be a sickly farmhand on the Haggett farm and was allowed to sleep in the barn, where he also painted his “colorful pictures.” In the morning that follows, Haggett receives many visitors, who have all become very interested in the paintings of the late artist, Bean. They come to the farmhouse with various moneymaking schemes. Some are honest, others downright nefarious. The fun in this comedy is the scramble to recover the Bean canvasses, which had been used around the farm for patching of chicken coops, leaky roofs, etc., since nobody believed the artist would ever be famous.The star ofthe show is, undoubtedly, Nick DeCesare, whose performance captured the essence ofa good country doctor, who fast succumbs to outlandish schemes, to get his hands on the missing paintings, one of which is a life-size picture ofAbby, which she will not part with. The changing emotions enable DeCesare tojuggle them like balls in the air as the situation ensues. Each visitor proposes different scenarios, doing the most outlandish acts, trying to manipulate Abby, so that he and his family can make themselves rich, at her expense. You can sense the turmoil that he is in. Cecilia Vaicels plays Mrs. Haggett with great energy and exuberance. She is bossy and manipulative. Her goal is to find suitable professional men for both her daughters. She is adamant that “my girls must go to Florida to meet nice young men to marry.” “Where' s the money to come from?, asks Haggett – “where, from the sale of the Bean paintings,” replies his wife. Their two daughters, Susan and Delilah, portrayed by Lauren Vaicels and Allison LeGrow have secrets of their own, which also spice up the tangled plot. Vaicels makes her acting debut. She is a charming newcomer. Tallent, one ofthe visitors, is a charming gentlemen-forger who propositions Haggett into splitting up the proceeds (from forging Bean's paintings!. This polished, smooth talking con-man is played by Rich Weyhausen, as a “gentlemen” with a past, and no conscience, especially when charming Abby and the Haggett daughters. He is such a rogue, he manages to buy one ofthe daughter's paintings knowing that she used a Bean canvass to paint the picture on the back! Dean Schildkraut is worthy in his cameo part as the New York Tribune's art cnitic who wants Bean's works to be seen by the general public, since he had now become famous in certain art circles
Theodore Cabacungan adequately played another schemer, Rosen, an art dealer of dubious authenticity. Dave Rerecich was convincing as Susan's friend and soon to be husband, Warren Creamer. He also had been taught painting as a young boy by Bean. The art critic, Davenport, became excited when he saw some ofthe paintings, in Bean's style. The housekeeper, Abby, who had been close to the artist, Bean, and knew all his secrets, is personified by I(aren Platania-Molina. She is a plain yet proud, neat person, who has been unfairly treated by the Haggett family, but kept her emotions in check. She served them with loyalty for an inadequate salary. Yet, in her heart, she has wonderful memories of friendship (and more) with Bean. She is proud of her lifesize painting, which Bean painted, as she worked in the farmhouse kitchen. She also makes the bombshell announcement that she and Bean had married, and she has the marriage license to prove it.!
The director is Andy Szewczuk, a talented actor/producer who gives his nine players tremendous support and teamwork in a rather dif'ficult play and guides them to give their optimum performances. The producer was Mickey Cutter and Stage Manager Clarissa Kohler.
St. Gregory's will present a musical show in the summer, title to be announced.
Reach Qguide writer Anita Raymon by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 139.
