By Charles Paolino
originally published: 03/06/2024
You can learn a lot by eavesdropping, and that's the experience of a teenaged character in The Club, a play by Chris Bohjalian having its world premiere at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick.
The Club, which runs through March 17, concerns three couples—two white, one black—who are friends in a suburban neighborhood in 1968. They are friends, that is, if they don’t look too closely.
The world was on fire all around them what with war in Vietnam, anti-war protests at home, conflicts over integration and other civil-rights issues, and the murders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
The suburbanites numbed themselves to all this tsuris, principally with alcohol. The play, in fact, finds them recovering from a Saturday night at the Barrows house that was billed as a dinner party but never got past the booze with some sexual dalliances as subplots.
Casting a critical eye on this behavior is Olive, the 13-year-old daughter of the Barrows, who both learns about and teaches her parents, Richard and Anna, as she defies their efforts to keep her in her room as events play out on Sunday.
Among the Saturday night guests who reappear on Sunday are Peter and Angela Kendricks. They are the only black people in the neighborhood, but never mind. They are regular participants in the Barrows’ bacchanals and Peter is a business colleague of Richard. And Peter and Angela, expecting their first child, are looking forward to joining the Barrows at the private golf and tennis club.
The third couple are John and Marion Willows, John being a client at the ad agency where Richard and Peter work and Marion being too young and hip for John.
Oh, and John is chairman of the secretive membership committee at the club, and Richard is a voting member. The fact that it’s 1968 might give a hint of what unfolds when these couples reassemble in the Barrows living room on Sunday night.
The ensemble that performs this drama under David Saint’s direction is, without exception, well cast and adept in their roles. Especially entertaining among the darker themes is the caustic wit and sarcasm exchanged by Richard and Anna Barrows, played by true-life spouses Frederick Weller and Ali Marsh as they spar over what Anna saw Richard doing with Marion Willows while she rationalizes what Richard saw her doing with a male guest.
Also notable is Brendan Ryan’s chilling performance as the flinty and immovable John Willows.
And high marks for Skyler Hensley as Olive, who quietly absorbs what she hears, even when she isn’t supposed to be listening, and who calls the adults on the hypocrisy and self-delusion that permeate their conversations and their behavior. A lesser director and actor might have overplayed the eye-rolling teenager in the room, but Olive’s self-possession and keen analysis provides a telling contrast to the ostensible grownups.
Although it is set in 1968, this play explores issues of social inclusion and personal integrity that are as relevant now as they were then. Bohjalian’s skillful writing and the actors’ performances make The Club a provocative and worthwhile experience.
George Street Playhouse presents The Club through March 17, 2024 at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (11 Livingston Avenue) in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Click here for ticket information.
PHOTOS BY T. CHARLES ERICKSON
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