Word: tomming
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...complicated, somewhat contrived, but quite a lot of fun, especially when Ruth tries to elicit some kind of emotional reaction from the impassive Tom--whom she loathes--by telling him of her desire to roll around in the grass at his feet wearing only her glasses. The mild-mannered vet, more concerned with cats than women, remains stoic...
Norman describes Tom at one point as a man who has "never had an agressive thought in his little mind." That meekness in Tom's character occasionally shows itself in Gottlieb's portrayal, most notably in the first scene. On balance, though, Gottlieb slumps through his role well, with a humourous mixture of bumbling incertitude and maddening lack of perceptiveness...
...Follette, as Tom's would-be temptress and Norman's oft-eschewed wife Ruth, achieves a balance of incisiveness and insightfulness that makes her character whole and believable. Although she seems to seethe with an underlying intensity, La Follette at times stifles her portrayal, as she does in act two, scene one of "Round and Round the Garden," when she converses with Sarah so quietly that some of her words are lost to the back rows...
...show's success must go not only to the actors, but to director Reiffel, who also designed the music, lighting, and sparse but functional set. Only in the first scene of "Garden" when Norman enters carrying his pajamas, does Reiffel's staging falter. As Norman slinks about and Tom stalks a lost cat, the pacing is off, and the scene drags...
...Reiffel more than makes up for the problems in the opening with a riotous climax in the second act in which Annie and Norman collapse onto the lawn in a tumult of passion as Reg and Tom chat obliviously only a few feet away...