Nostalgic “LUV” story opens
Milpitas Post Staff
by W. Fred Crow
What’s love got to do with it? Well, everything and nothing, but it’s a great question asked and answered in Murray Schisgal’s stage play “LUV.” Northside Theatre Company Director Richard Orlando reached into the archives and brought Schisgal’s 45-year-old work to the stage. It once played to the avant-garde in 1964; today it remains tame and nostalgic and reachable. “LUV” is also very entertaining.
The premise of the story is simple 1960s. Three people, trying to make sense of their not so happy lives, meet on a bridge where one wants to lose his life, another wants to lose his wife, and the third wants order and happiness in her life. For want of a better word, all three are a bit squirrelly. Put together, writer Schisgal pens a fast-paced romp of fun and discovery.
The play opens to reveal an inanimate character central to the play the bridge, stately and sentinel. As the lights go down and the opening music goes up, you sense that Philip Marlow or Humphrey Bogart might stroll across the set, trench coat wrapped loose, belt hanging down, and collar up turned to the cold. No, maybe for another production. Here we’re introduced to Harry Berlin (Brent Beebe), a disheveled and confused man mumbling to himself, lost in his personal world of mental hurt and pain. He’s on the bridge to end it all. He has nothing. He gives nothing. He hopes for nothing.
Fast-talking Milt Manville (Travis Leland), Harry’s old college chum, arrives in the nick of time and mad-libs him toward another, safer direction; down off the railing of the bridge and, he hopes, into the arms of his wife, Ellen Manville (Susannah Greenwood). Milt wants Harry to alienate the affections of his wife so he, Milt can continue pursuing another.
The breezy madcap banter between Leland and Beebe was refreshing. They engage in “one-downmanship,” the adult version of a child’s game of who lived a worse life. The verbal jousting as each tried to out do the other with tales of woe was a treat. Beebe wore his mental issues like a mantle and shared freely with everyone. Leland, as Milt, held his issues close to the vest. You knew something was amiss, but it needed to be revealed.
Milt sells Harry on the idea that, for all his problems, love can solve what ails him. Harry feels reprieved. He has hope. He thinks he can start anew.
Enter Ellen, Milt’s precise wife who can spout sports facts and figures like any guy. She joins Milt near the bridge as he tells her of his friend from college, hoping to introduce them and excite a spark. Ellen isn’t ready to listen. She’s there with her own agenda. She methodically and hilariously explains how Milt hasn’t taken care of his husbandly duties, they have drifted apart, and illustrates her point with a chart that graphs their lack of physical congress. Milt sells her on the idea that love is missing and can solve her problems and introduces her to Harry, hoping they hit it off. They do.
Greenwood played Ellen with a joyful frustration. She wants the right things with hubby Milt, but finds Harry to be interesting and like-minded. That is, until Harry proves incapable of rational thought. He really is damaged. In the end Milt and Ellen reunite and Harry is back on the bridge seeking permanent answers to temporary issues.
“LUV” is a good show. The age lines haven’t diminished its edge, and the acting keeps the tale polished for the telling. Some lines date their origins but what might have shocked and titillated the crowds back in the 1960s now entertains.
Beebe, Leland and Greenwood inspire confidence in their presentation. These characters could exist, could be real (and probably are). Beebe never left his character’s neuroses to show normalcy. Leland remained faithful to his manic and self absorbed demeanor. Greenwood was an engaging study of frustrated resignation and want. The three combined into a well managed ensemble playing nicely off one another without over being powering.
The set, sound, and lights all earn kudos for being right without being distracting. Orlando keeps the reins of direction at just the right tension that let the audience enjoy an evening at the theater.
The charming production of “LUV” closes Northside Theatre’s 30th season and plays through July 12. The stage is located at the Olinder Theatre, 848 E. William St., San Jose. For box office information and reservations, call 288-7820.
