Reviewed by Judy Richter
Many a play looks at young love,
but few look at senior citizen love. "Southern Comforts" by Kathleen Clark looks at the latter with amusing,
touching success. Joy Carlin directs the West Coast premiere of this two-person,
intermissionless play with great sensitivity for TheatreWorks.
The
action takes place in a sparsely furnished Morris, N.J., living room during the
last half of 1996. (The handsome set is by Frank Sarmiento with lighting by Michael
Palumbo,
costumes by Cathleen Edwards, and music and sound by Cliff Caruthers.) The home belongs to Gus
Klingman (TheatreWorks favorite Edward Sarafian), a curmudgeonly widower who
likes his uncomplicated life just like it is, thank you very much.
His
life is interrupted one rainy afternoon when the cheerful, chatty Amanda Cross
(Karen Grassle,
best known as Ma on TV's "Little House on the Prairie"), a Tennessee widow
visiting her daughter and grandchildren, delivers pledge envelopes for the
church. They discover they have not only widowhood but also love of baseball in
common. They see each other off and on after that, and one sees the beginning
of affection and friendship, perhaps even romance. However, Gus is so obtuse
and so non-introspective that it takes a long time for him to see and understand
what's happening.
Carlin
and the two actors handle the transitions subtlety but surely. The outgoing
Amanda casually pats Gus on the arm during conversation. The gruff Gus starts
smiling more. The changes involve some hilarity, especially as Amanda broaches
the delicate subjects of sex and then of commitment, but the situations ring
true to the characters. There's conflict, too, but ultimately they both realize
how lucky they are to have a second chance at love so late in life and to have
the opportunity to live out their lives together rather than alone.