Word: bricked
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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William's story is set in a guest bedroom of a large plantation in the Mississippi Delta. The play centers on the faltering marriage of Brick (David Javerbaum) and Maggie (Cori Lynn Peterson) Pollit. Brick has turned to alcohol as an escape from Maggie, whom he can no longer love. Brick's disdain for Maggie has caused the couple to live without children--something unacceptable in the eyes of Big Daddy (Stanley Sneeringer) and Big Mama (Janine Poreba) Pollit...
Caplow's beautiful set enhances the production. A large bed dominates the stage, symbolizing the failure of this marriage. Caplow also makes use of the small couch that Brick chooses to occupy each night rather than having to sleep with Maggie. The last important piece of the set is the bar, which becomes Brick's central concern...
Williams's powerful script requires strong performances from the main characters. And Peterson and Javerbaum rise to the occasion. Peterson gives an urgent performance that moves the audience to feel her need for love and attention from Brick. In scenes with her sister-in-law Mae (Heather Hughes), Peterson displays just the right amount of spite and hatred, while still retaining her Southern manners...
Javerbaum is perfectly removed as Brick, the ex-football player turned alcoholic. Shattered by the death of his friend and teammate, Skipper, Brick is even more hurt by the accusations that these two friends were homosexual lovers. For much of the play, Caplow has Javerbaum hover in the background as he drinks himself into peaceful oblivion. The few times that Javerbaum is required to express rage are more believable when contrasted with his normal drunken indifference...
...many gibes as fantasies: just over a century ago, Rudyard Kipling was already pronouncing that "San Francisco is a mad city, inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people" (others might say "insanely perfect"); and more than 40 years ago, S.J. Perelman was barreling down the yellow brick road to L.A., the "mighty citadel which had given the world the double feature, the duplexburger, the motel, the hamfurter, and the shirt worn outside the * pants." Yes, we know, all too well, that "going to California" is tantamount, for many people, to going to seed...