TEN CHIMNEYS at the Theatre at St. Clement's

(Seen September 29th, 2012)

One of the many problems in creating a play based on real people --- especially theatre icons --- is representing them as the recognizable personalities that we associate with these stars of a past generation.

Jeffrey Hatcher has fearlessly brought together Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Sydney Greenstreet, and Uta Hagen, among others, to spend some time at the Lunt-Fontanne homestead --- TEN CHIMNEYS --- in rural Wisconsin.

Life-changing encounters ensue as Hatcher drags out all the revelations of everyone's private lives, in their pursuits of their artistic ambitions and goals.  The would-be sophistication of these people and their lives, however, never seem believable.

Hatcher's attempts to draw parallels from THE SEAGULL --- which they rehearse during the play --- doesn't really develop well.   It is a would-be drawing-room comedy bathed in soap opera, with a touch of farce.  And the earnest cast cannot overcome the heavy-handed writing and the leisurely direction of Dan Wackerman