Last night in Barrington Stage's production at the St. Germain Stage I was both interested and puzzled at the performance.
Debra Jo RuppThe cast included Debra Jo Rupp as Kimberly, Chris Thorn as Buddy, Jessiee Datino as Pattie, Adam Langdon as Jeff, and Jessica Savage as Debra.
Chris ThornThe plot centers around Kimberly, who has the Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome. This disease was first detected in 1886 and the symptoms consist of the rapid aging effects of the bodies of children, most of whom only live into their teens or early twenties. It is extremely rare, occurring only once in about eight million people.
Jessiee DatinoAs you might guess, this gets the plot of the play off to wild beginning.
Adam LangdonPattie, Kimberly's mother is pregnant again and seems to be accident prone. Throughout the play her hands are wrapped in large bandages after her surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome, caused by a long time job of pumping creme into Twinkies knock-offs. Later in the play she wears a large 'boot' on one foot plus a neck brace after falling off a loading ramp at the hospital. In short, she is a mess!
Jessica SavageWhen Debra Jo Rupp first appeared with Christ Thorn, who plays her father, I whispered to David, 'Why is that older woman playing a high school girl?'
A bit later the playwright explained that Kimberly was affected by Progeria, which helped the casting make sense.
Jeff, a fellow high school student, is writing a paper on Progeria and wants help from Kimberly to complete his study of the disease. She seems perfectly happy to discuss the syndrome with him.
Debra shows up; a tough, ex-con sister of Pattie, who has a plot to rob a bank. She has stolen a US Postal box, which she wheels onto the stage on a dolly, planning to extract the checks she finds in envelopes, somehow get rid of all the writing on each one except for the signature, rewrite them made out to Jeff and have him cash them at a bank.
So Debra, Kimberly and Jeff are the 'criminals' in the plot and Buddy and Pattie the unknowing bystanders.
Are you still with me?
Each member of the cast was excellent in his or her role, which included much intentional over-acting, a lot of very loud talking and almost too much physical movement, especially in Act I, and a lot of very funny lines written by Mr. Lindsay-Abaire. For instance, Kimbery explains to her father not to worry if she has sex with Jeff because she went through menapause at age 12.
It took quite a lot of discussion in the car on the way home between Barbara, Paul, David, and myself, to try to sort the whole thing out.
Apparently Pattie had been impregnated for Kimberly's birth by a neighbor in Secacus, NJ, who was later killed by Debra, but who carried the gene for Progeria. This caused the family to move to Bogota, NJ, the scene of the play. Her current pregnancy by Buddy will supposedly not produce another child with this syndrome.
The three 'criminals' get the money from the bank, argue over how to split it, and finally Kimberly and Jeff run off with the entire swag and head for Six Flags Amusement Park, a place Buddy has promised to take Kimberly for years and never has.
The ending reminded me of the end of Gian-Carlo Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief, which I produced years ago in New Jersey, and which, co-incidentally starred Barbara's husband as Bob. In the opera the Old Maid's maid Letitia and Bob run off with the swag.
The play was directed by Rob Ruggiero and was very fast paced in Act I slowing down a bit in Act II. I'm still not sure what I think of it as a stage work. I doubt that it is Broadway bound, but it's anybody's guess.
