Community Players Tackles Social Security, and Hilarity Ensues

The Community Players open their 98th season with a community theater staple, Social Security, directed by James Sulanowski. It opened on Broadway in 1986 and ran for about a year, during which time it picked up a few awards, mostly for the set design. Locally, it has been performed by a few different community theaters in the past decade. As the title suggests, this Andrew Bergman play tackles generational conflicts and elderly agency, and, as it often does (at least in theater) when a dysfunctional family is involved, hilarity ensues.

First, we meet David and Barbara Kahn, a couple of art dealers in their swanky New York apartment in October 1985, who are anxiously speculating on what Barbara’s sister, Trudy Heyman, and her husband, Martin, are coming in from their home in Mineola to discuss. It may be a problem with their college freshman daughter, or perhaps their curmudgeonly, elderly mother, Sophie. It turns out to be both. Trudy and Martin have to shuffle up to Buffalo to rescue their daughter from her overly adventurous extracurricular activities, so they ask the Kahns to take in Sophie in the meantime. Actually, they’re not just asking; Sophie’s waiting in the car with all of her belongings.

Two weeks later, tensions are high between Barbara and Sophie, and with an important visitor coming to the apartment, elderly famous artist Maurice Koenig, disaster seems inevitable.

As David and Barbara, Mark Lima and Joyce Leven are solid as a sophisticated couple gone stale, but learning to rekindle their flame. Barbara would be an easy character to overact, but Leven keeps it grounded. Though played likeably by Lima, David can be a tough character to stomach, mostly because of his sexual attraction to his niece. Perhaps his inappropriate comments are supposed to be a part of the comedy, but they end up just being disturbing.

Trudy and Martin (JoAnn Vinagro Bromley and David Mann) provide the foil for David and Barbara’s cultured extravagance. They’re frugal and don’t get art, questioning some of the art on display in the Kahns’ home that seems “blank” to them. They are also obsessively overprotective of their daughter, who they call twice everyday at college, much to her chagrin. Bromley’s Trudy is borderline hysterical over her daughter and mother, hinting at some internal psychological issues that could probably be the subject of her own spin-off play; her lack of a happy ending leaves her story feeling unresolved.

Janette Gregorian is entertainingly impossible as Sophie, though not quite as monstrous as Trudy would have us believe. Sure, she is stubborn and guilt-tripping and has some eccentric habits, like sticking half-sucked sour balls in random places, and, at one point, as a joke, she strips down to her underwear–at which point, of course, Koenig enters. She is also sharp as a tack and always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else. Lee Hakeem is charming as the old but lively artist, Koenig. The chemistry between them, however, leaves something to be desired. Though it seems like something is budding between the two from their first meeting, this doesn’t feel entirely clear until Koenig makes his move (“He’s holding my hand, Bobbsy!” Sophie exclaims. “What should I do?”), which makes Barbara’s description of them hitting it off right away seem less credible.

The set, constructed by Emily Fisher, Charles Koster, Christopher Margadonna, Brian Mulvey and James Sulanowski, captures an art-lover’s eclectic home in the ’80s, with various kinds of art hanging on the wall. Pamela Jackson’s costume designs do a wonderful job of establishing each character, from Barbara’s sophisticated style to Sophie’s transition from a comfortable house dress to a sparkly dress.

Expect a more senior audience for this show – about 90% of the audience when I was there was old enough to be on social security (granted, it was a matinee, which typically attracts an older crowd anyway). Laughs certainly abound, but be warned: much of the comedy is on the raunchy side.

The Community Players’ production of Social Security runs at Jenks Auditorium in Pawtucket through Sep 23. For tickets, visit thecommunityplayers.net or call the box office at 401-726-6860