Flowers for Algernon at Theatre Three
Lisa Napell Dicksteen
Originally appeared in Times
Beacon Record Newspapers
Heath Cohen is an actor with range. When last we saw him he was starring in Theatre Three’s recent production of the British farce “Run for Your Wife” as the hapless John Smith, a London cabbie living two lives, in two homes, with two wives. This character uses his erratic schedule and a detailed pocket calendar to keep his lives, and his wives, apart until a good deed lands him in the hospital and causes the whole rickety structure to collapse hilariously.
This time he is the rickety structure, and his collapse is more a cause for tears than laughter. As Charlie Gordon in Daniel Keys’ “Flowers for Algernon,” Cohen is believable, touching, and never over the top. The play, which was adapted from the 1966 novel, which grew out of the 1959 story, concerns a young retarded man and the way his life is altered by an experimental surgical procedure designed to increase his intelligence.
We meet Charlie as he is beginning the process of testing that will qualify him for the procedure. He has been brought to the scientists’ attention by his teacher, the lovely and compassionate Alice Kinnian (Mary Puma). Puma is by turns realistically efficient, concerned, happy, and hurt as her relationship with her student changes as he goes from being a boy in a man’s body to being a man and back again. As hard as the changes are on Charlie, they are just as hard on the woman he loves. Imagine yourself involved with a man who you met as a boy in your class. Over a period of less than a year he became a patient you worried over, a peer with whom you shared a real affection, and then a genius with severe intimacy issues that stem from the tortured childhood he can now recall. Then imagine taking the same ride on the way down; a voyage of loss rather than discovery. It would be easy to become maudlin, sentimental, or simply to over act. Puma does none of those things. She brings Kinnian to life so that the audience can feel her growing affection, her happiness and her sense of helplessness as time goes on.
The scientists who work on and with Charlie represent three different scientific approaches. At one end we have the talented completely science driven Professor Harold Nemur (Bill Pierce). He is only interested in finding the “right” candidate, performing the procedure, and monitoring the results. He is entirely convincing. Pierce’s Professor is completely absorbed in the process – not an absent minded professor, but one with his eye on the University chair a successful outcome will assure him.
Robert Mark Kaufman as Dr. Jay Strauss is the man in the middle; a man of research and professional ambition who also experiences strong feelings of concern for the person that is Charlie and the whirlwind this experiment has made of his life. His scenes with Charlie are realistic and his professional arguments with Nemur are reasonable.
The third man in the scientific triad is Michael S. Horney as the affable Burt Seldon, the researcher who spends the most time with Charlie, and develops the most personal relationship with him. As Seldon he administers the Rorschach tests and oversees the maze running with Charlie and Algernon – the mouse named in the title.
Director Jeffrey Sanzel joked with theatre-goers that Algernon was being portrayed by an expensive equity mouse. However, the mouse in this production is a mere slight of hand. What is not a joke is the directing which, combined with the scenic talents of Randal Parsons, the lighting of Russ Behrens, and an exceptional production staff, delivered the feeling of a maze through which all the actors ran smoothly. Especially well designed and executed were the flashbacks to Charlie’s childhood, which took place in a large box-like scrim on which maze-like lighting was cast to render it invisible when not in use.
When back-lit, it became a diorama for scenes with his parents, his sister Nora, and his younger self. Lori Anne De Iulio Casdia plays Mother Rose as a woman tormented by her idea of what a child should be, and tortured by the decisions she makes regarding her imperfect son and her “perfect” daughter. She is entirely plausible whether cooing over her precious baby girl or shrieking at her ineffectual husband.
Matt, her unlucky husband, is played by the talented Ron Indelicato. Here we have a man who realizes that his son is mentally handicapped, but loves the boy and does his best to pay for the expensive medical treatments and tests required. He is always putting off the discussion of what to do about the boy – his wife wants him fixed at first, then institutionalized. He does as he is commanded, but with a heavy heart.
The two younger Charlies are played by Todd Ghidaleson (the teenage years) and Nicholas Casdia and Sean Sullivan (alternately) as the younger boy. All three boys are wonderful. When asked by an audience member in the cast Q&A following the show, Ghidaleson said he’d taken his cue about how to portray Charlie from Cohen. His younger counterpart nodded in agreement.
Young Sarah Markowitz plays little sister as a child. She is embarrassed by him and uses her superior intelligence to make him look even more defective in her mother’s eyes. This is a young actress with poise and control who said that only “about 15 percent” of her performance was based on her experiences as an older sister in real life.
The elderly landlady who befriends Charlie after he has run away to live on his own before and during his downward slide is wonderfully portrayed by the gifted Evelyne Lune, as are several smaller parts.
Charlie is the heart and soul of this play and Cohen is rarely off the stage. His performance, based partly on the time he spent with developmentally challenged children and young adults, is utterly convincing.
“Flowers for Algernon” will play on Theatre Three’s Main
Stage through