“On Golden Pond” by Ernest Thompson is one of those stories that will stand the test of time. The way it handles issues of old age and familial relationships will be relatable for years to come.
Unfortunately, its Snowy Range Summer Theatre iteration will not have the same longevity.
“Pond” follows a summer in the lives of Norman and Ethel Thayer, a retired husband and wife at “the far edge of middle aged.” While staying at their summer home in Maine, the old couple receives a visit from their daughter Chelsea, her new fiancé Bill Ray and his son Billy Ray. The rest of the play deals mostly with Norman’s love for his wife, his stunted relationship with Chelsea and his unlikely friendship with the young Billy Ray.
Norman, played by Pete Simpson, was borderline unlikable for most of the first act. His grumpy, disagreeable morbidity made it hard to connect with the character. However, Simpson’s Letterman-esque sense of humor was contagious, leaving much of the audience laughing to the point of crying. The on-stage chemistry he had with his wife Lynne, who played Ethel Thayer, was downright adorable. Together, their performances helped to carry a play that was otherwise dragging from start to finish.
In a recent production of “On Golden Pond” at the Cheyenne Little Theatre, runtimes came in around 90 minutes. Tuesday’s performance ran for an exhaustive two hours and 30 minutes. Nearly all of the performers spent an inordinate amount of time struggling with their lines. This, paired with unnecessarily lengthy scene changes and the fact that performers would often take nearly a minute after the lights came up to finally walk on stage killed any energy built up over the course of the scenes. From a technical standpoint, the show was a disaster.
Luckily for the audience, some of the performers managed to pick up the slack. University of Wyoming theatre professors Kevin Inouye and Landee Lockhart proved that UW theatre students are in good hands by providing energetic and interesting performances as Chelsea and Bill Ray. Yet, just as these performers started bringing the spirit into the show, others brought it back down.
A cardinal sin in the theatre is to laugh at your own jokes. Though things were not quite that bad, the knowing smirks found on Larry Hensel and Milo Alberts’ faces every time they delivered a funny line were just as sinful. While Hensel’s character Charlie, a childhood friend of Chelsea, was not as important to the play, Alberts’ character Billy Ray was an integral part of the story. His relationship with Norman fuels the building action in the script, but the performers inauthenticity made “Pond’s” progression seem more like a molehill than a mountain.
The production was, in a word, flawed; however, the nearly packed audience did not seem to mind. Despite the issues the performance faced, “On Golden Pond” still hit a strong emotional climax that really struck a chord with the elderly majority in the audience.
