'Alone Together': Losing the kids & regaining a marriage

Lock the door!" the man blurted " out.

I don't know who he was, but he was in the audience at the Florida Repertory Theatre, and obviously caught up in the action of the play.

It was opening night of "Alone Together," and the married couple on stage had just seen their last child leave the nest.

The audience obviously related to the story, so much so that they were applauding lines and yes, making comments.

Perhaps the plot was one they knew all too well from their own lives: George and Helene (Tad Ingram and Carrie Lund), husband and wife, finally send their youngest son off to college.

But no sooner has the youngest left and the parents begin enjoying their newly empty nest, when their other offspring return home.

As Helene comments dryly in one scene, they haven't raised sons, they've raised homing pigeons.

"Alone Together" is a major change of pace for the company who, so far this season, has given us substantial fare such as "The Glass Menagerie," "Born Yesterday" and "Dancing at Lughnasa."

Those complex plays had their moments of levity, but they made you think. They were red meat for the soul and mind, something to sink your teeth into and chew on.

And now, Florida Rep is offering something small and light — an amusebouche, or a sorbet.

"Alone Together" instigates more laughter than thinking. It doesn't pretend to be deep at all.

And it isn't.

"Alone Together" is somewhat like the bumblebee, which, according to science and the laws of aerodynamics, shouldn't be able to fly, but does. This Lawrence Roman play, set in the '70s, is full of clichés. It also contains a passive-aggressive father and two totally unlikeable sons, who, despite their chronological ages (30 and 28), have yet to reach adulthood.

Examine the play too carefully, and it falls apart.

And yet, it contains many funny lines and scenes.

And the audience loved it.

Much of its success has to do with Carrie Lund's performance as Helene, the wife and mother.

Ms. Lund has starred in other plays at the Florida Rep, but she virtually carries this show, with her precise comic timing and perfect dry delivery of her lines. She plays a concerned mom, flirtatious wife, and woman-on-the-vergeof a-nervous-breakdown, moving naturally from one to the other.

She has the talent of finding the humor in almost every line she has and every scene she's in.

Mr. Ingram portrays her husband, George, as clueless and spineless. He always takes the path of least resistance and keeps insisting they're not arguing, even when they are. He is, by his own admission, a part-time father, not having fully participated in the parenting of his own offspring. And for much of the play, he finds himself unable to stand up to his own sons.

Mr. Ingram is a strong actor, but was perhaps miscast. He seems much older than Ms. Lund, and while May-December marriages aren't unheard of, they make a mismatched couple on stage. The girlish behavior of Ms. Lund's character, when she's happy or flirting, only seems to highlight this.

Jason Parrish plays the eldest son, a mathematical genius, as anti-social, full of quirks and tics. He's secretive, blows things up with his experiments, and drinks milk straight from the carton. He's completely self-absorbed, self-centered, and lacking in social graces.

John-Robert Warren plays the second son, Elliott, a womanizer. His wife back in Texas has thrown him out for sleeping with other women. Inexplicably, Warren plays him as a swaggering cowboy with a drawl, though his character grew up in California and has lived in Texas for a few years. He's one big walking stereotype from his western boots to his Stetson hat.

I wish director Chris Clavelli had instructed Mr. Warren to play the role differently. His puzzling over-the-top Texas accent was distracting, and more than one audience member commented on it negatively after the show.

His character lacks such respect for women that he even swats his own mother's posterior a couple times and comments on how good she looks when she's bending over.

I never believed these two were brothers.

Trey Gerrald, as Keith, the youngest son, doesn't have much stage time, but plays his role as a winsome and decent kid. And Mary-Margaret Roberts is giggly and bubbly as Jamie, a young hippie-ish girl without a home. The two brothers, of course, fight over her.

Bruce R. Bailey's set of a Los Angeles home, with a Tuscan feel and ironwork, is solid and so realistic, you feel you could move in immediately and live there.

Stefanie Genda's costumes accurately recall the late 1970s, with the exception of Ms. Roberts's costume. For some reason, she dresses like a flower child from the '60s.

This 1984 Broadway play is at its strongest when dealing with Helene and George. The playwright gets the small details right: the way parents slip money to their kids and don't want the other to know, the way a mom will knit a scarf or pack a hefty lunch. He also gets the interactions between a couple correct, the way they push each other's buttons, or know when the other is lying.

There are some solid and hearty laughs in this play, which at its best is like a good TV sit-com. Ms. Lund's masterful performance helps elevate this play into something more.

Like some families or marriages, "Alone Together" doesn't seem as if it should work or be successful, but somehow it is.

.. If you go

>>What: "Alone Together" >>Where: The Florida Repertory Theatre,

Bay Street between Hendry and

Jackson in the Arcade Theatre in

downtown Fort Myers >>When: through March 8 >>Cost: $38, $34, $20 >>Info: Call 332-4488 or www.FloridaRep.org >>Note: Some streets around the theater

are blocked off, due to construction. Also, extra streets may be blocked off on certain days due to the Edison Parade of Lights and other events.