REVIEW: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Frinton Summer Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Paul T Davies reviews Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs presented as part of the Frinton Summer Theatre Repertory Season.

The cast of Brighton Beach Memoirs. Photo Chris Davies Photovogue Brighton Beach Memoirs Frinton Summer Theatre

24 July 2019

4 Stars

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Often over shadowed by other American playwrights of the Twentieth Century, Neil Simon wrote witty, observational comedies that have lasted the test of time. Staged within a short walk from Frinton beach, Brighton Beach Memoirs is his semi-autobiographical 1982 play, the first of the “Eugene Trilogy”, and tells of the coming of age of Eugene during 1937, with America struggling through the Great Depression and war just a few years away. The tensions and support of family life, crammed into a house in the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, are beautifully written by Simon, and this fine production brings it all beautifully to life.

It helps that the cast are so good. Christopher Buckley is an excellent Eugene, perfectly capturing 15-year-old enthusiasm, hormones and puberty, with a strong connection with the audience. The scenes between him and his older brother Stanley,( excellent James Mace), are totally convincing, hilarious when discussing girls and masturbating, poignant when Stanley is in trouble and Eugene’s love and support for his brother come through. This is an excellent play for women, and Natasha Pring and Nicola Stuart-Hill totally inhabit the roles of sisters Blanche and Kate, Eugene’s mother trying to keep the family together when any monetary change of income can devastate them. I was very impressed by Reginald Edward’s portrayal of Dad Jack, who captured the Jewish rhythms in the text perfectly, and was a strong, guiding influence even after Jack suffers a heart attack. As Blanche’s daughters Laurie and Nora, Chloe Goodliffe and Antonia Rita did well with roles that, to be honest, are a little underwritten and struggle for stage time.

What director Edward Max has done particularly well is capture the moments of crisis, allowing the play to breathe. As the family become close to fracturing, we are gently reminded by Simon that, even though they remain together at the end, Polish family members are due to arrive having escaped the Nazis, and war will break up this unit anyway.  Occasionally there is a bit too much facing out front and declaiming the lines, but that is a minor quibble. This is a poignant, funny, beautifully realised production, played on an excellent split level design by Beth Colley, and a perfect tribute to Neil Simon, who passed away last year.