Word: gar
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Gar I. Platt Los Angeles...
...sullen, taciturn central character entails a dramatic hazard which Friel sidesteps entirely: he divides his hero in two--accompanying the "public" Gar on stage is another one, representing his inner voice, and apparent only to his counterpart and to the audience. Friel handles this gimmick with wit and versatility. The inner Gar expresses what the other cannot, in a sardonic running commentary on Gar's quiet interaction with the other characters. When the Gars are alone, the inner self serves both as conscience and provocateur...
...Mark and Steven O'Donnell as the double Gar in the Leverett House production. The O'Donnell brothers look very much alike and work well together. Shared nuances of expression often reflect an undercurrent of feeling at difficult moments, as when the inner Gar expresses the emotions his alter ego is at pains to conceal...
...heart of the play is Gar's relationship to his father (his mother died, as one would predict, in childbirth). No warmth passes between the two, for which Gar is bitterly resentful and partly responsible, but their memories and dreams of a past, happier time surface again and again throughout the play and finally bring them to the edge of an understanding in a sleepless, early morning scene...
Jeff Melvoin's staging is imaginative and carefully judged. There are a few slips, such as the pointless added scenes of Gar awkwardly playing a tune on a recorder, but the careful pacing and the attention to detail is on a level above that of most theater at Harvard. So the decision to perform in the round stands out as particularly deplorable. With the audience on all four sides of the set it's impossible to avoid featuring the backs of too many heads for too long. A few fluid scenes benefit from the extra freedom of movement a lack...