Brighton Beach Memoirs
By Neil Simon
In Neil Simon's darkly funny memoir of his family in 1930s Brooklyn, 14-year-old Eugene is preoccupied by his passion for the Yankees and his lust for his beautiful cousin, Nora. Eugene's comic growing pains contrast with the darker issues troubling his family: poverty, illness, long-held sibling resentment, and the growing Nazi threat to relatives in Europe. With a deft and compassionate hand, Simon creates a Brooklyn universe full of memorable characters, humor, and truth.
Featuring:
Jim Crow, Pat Mims, Paul J Steffan,
Karen Guler, Stephen Ramberg, Beth Carner,
Courtney Hughart, Denise Gorski and Kim Hughart.
Directed by Drew Thomas
Friday & Saturday November 9 & 10, 2007 at 8pm
Sunday November 11, 2007 at 2pm and 6pm
Friday & Saturday November 16 & 17, 2007 at 8pm
Sunday November 18, 2007 at 2pm and 6pm
The Community Building Complex of Boone County 111 West First Street Belvidere, IL
Produced by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.
Make a reservation for Brighton Beach
Directors Notes
Play
Evokes Childhood Memories
By
Drew Thomas
Memories.
My Childhood Memories are not from Brighton Beach, but from Battle Creek,
Michigan, the Cereal City, home to Kellogg’s Cereal. …and my memories, oh,
they’re double good, just like the song about the cereal.
My memories transcend time and space.
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me and I remember one memory of a
particular time in a space quite unlike where the memory actually took place.
Sometimes, when I can accurately remember the place, the time eludes me.
Early Alzheimer’s? I hope
not.
I can remember the perspiration on my mother’s brow as she baked
cookies in the heat of summertime before the era of air conditioning.
I can smell the heavenly aroma of those cookies as if she were baking
them today. I can remember the
grease on my father’s sleeve as he tried, yet again, to show me how to change
the oil on my car. I can feel my
dad’s disappointment in me at not listening just as acutely as if he were here
today, trying again to teach me the mysteries of car repair.
So, I think, are most people’s memories.
Brighton Beach Memoirs is the first of a trilogy of plays in which
playwright, Neil Simon, remembers his childhood.
Just as my childhood memories can be relived as if they were yesterday,
so, too, I believe are Mr. Simon’s memories.
In my memories, I am the superhero, able to walk through walls and make
time stand still. With a movie soundtrack playing in the background and
shouting, “here I am to save the day!!!!”, in my memories, I am able to
catch the cookies before they burn or stop the jack from falling beneath the
car. Eugene Jerome (Simon’s
fictional recreation of himself) can walk through walls, suspend a memory to fit
his monologue, and remembers things not as they probably were, but, rather, how
they should have been.
Gone are the trivial concerns of living through the Depression.
Those were good years, despite the leanness of the times. Gone are the petty jealousies of sharing one bathroom with
six other family members. Eugene’s
memories are of his crush on his cousin, Nora, his idolatry of his brother,
Stanley, and his obsession with the Yankees, things far more important than the
use of the bathroom or the financially depressed times.
And, by extension, his family’s memories are much more poignant.
A photograph triggers painful memories from his mother’s childhood.
Missed opportunity triggers regret in his father, and a string of pearls
the loneliness in his aunt’s heart.
“Brighton Beach Memoirs” is a funny play.
Many of my childhood memories are hilarious, as are those of Neil Simon.
It is, however, a family photograph of memories, taken at the most
dramatic, heart-rending, and emotional moments of a young man’s life.
Just as photographs trigger memories for each member of Eugene’s
family, Main Street Players of Boone County hopes that this play will trigger
fond memories of your childhood, whether you grew up in the 30’s, 50’s, or
80’s.
Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs is being produced by the Main Street Players of Boone County, directed by Drew Thomas and features Jim Crow, Pat Mims, Paul J Steffan, Karen Guler, Stephen Ramberg, Beth Carner, Courtney Hughart, Denise Gorski and Kim Hughart. Production dates are Nov 9, 10, 16, 17 at 8pm and Sundays, Nov 11 at 2pm and 6pm and Nov 18 at 2pm at the Community Building Complex of Boone County, 111 W First St., Belvidere, IL. Ticket prices are $12 Adults, $10 Students and Seniors, with $5 Student Rush tickets (with student ID), 5 minutes before curtain if seats are available. Seating is limited so reservations are recommended by visiting our website at www.mainstreetplayersofboonecounty.com or calling 815-229-4444.
Make a reservation for Brighton Beach