Review © by Richard Gist, special to ShireNet Communications Systems, Sept. 23, 1995
Neil Simon's play "Jake's Women" is a far cry from the comedic work that has brought him so much acclaim over the past three decades, but it is unquestionably among his most ambitious. Simon is best known for his lighter fare such as "The Odd Couple" and "The Sunshine Boys." But his critics often argued his characters were too flat, so Simon answered with this odd mixture of autobiographical psychoanalysis together with a solid dose of his patented one-liners.
Based on episodes from Simon's early career as a gag creator for television in the 1950s, "Jake's Women" concerns a writer who is so engrossed in his fantasy life that he has trouble sorting out his true, albeit cynical, persona and his crumbling marriage. Here's a character who has his real life conversations yet who is capable of simultaneously wandering off to witness the same conversations from a distance, or even create them in accordance with his needs. This interweaving of the real with the imaginary results in some clever moments, but the overall effect occasionally gets lost in its own absurdity, and the cascading one-liners seem at times misplaced or too sparse amidst Jake's struggle to salvage his marriage and come to grips with his mounting neuroses.
Given this daunting challenge of characterization, actor Bill Prindle in the current Greenbelt Arts Center production is faced with having to display frustration, despair and wit for more than two solid hours, calling up as many varied facial expressions and acting devices as he can muster to keep the show from falling into a futile spectacle of repetitious anguish. For the most part, Prindle carries it off successfully -- we begin to empathise with this witty guy by the beginning of the second act, and wish him every success in patching his failed marriage. But Simon's heavyhanded writing near the conclusion is no help, with its explosion of complex internal Freudian musings, and is too much for even the most adept stage veteran. The exhausting voyage leaves us somehow wanting in the end, despite several entertaining and moving side-trips along the way.
There are some poignant moments in this play -- most notably the imagined reunion of Jake's 21-year old daughter with his deceased first wife, played convincingly by Vicky Riego de Dios and JanLee Marshall, respectively. Another delightful scene comes early in Act Two, when Jake's wife Maggie (played with energetic timing and stylish charm by Deborah Hensley) ends up ridiculing the writer for imagining an implausible marital reconciliation. Ed Starr's direction of such involving scenes is both spirited and sufficiently varied to overcome the limitations of the GAC stage space.
The parade of women (and child) in Jake's imaginative musings takes advantage of plenty of well-defined characterizations: the dizzy sister Karen, played with fine kinetic energy by Jill Macy; the 12-year old daughter Molly (Heather Martin); a convincing, if stereotypical, psychotherapist Edith (Norma Ozur), and the urbane but confused Sheila, his second-act failed love interest (played by Vicki Weeks).
This kind of humorous and introspective look at the artist's inability to separate fantasy from reality might better be left to the genius of Woody Allen so we can again look forward to more of what has made Neil Simon so much a part of the theatrical landscape for so long.
For information and reservations for any of the following shows during the Greenbelt Arts Center's 1995-96 season call (301) 441-8770. Watch for the GAC season which includes:
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