brigliton
c
ach
Irs
May 4-
June 5, 2005
Directed by:
Evelyn Orbach
Brighton Beach Memoirs is a deeply appealing
play that deftly mixes drama and Simon's signa-
ture comedy. Part one of Neil Simon's autobio-
graphical trilogy, and based on his experiences
with puberty and his family is among the top pro-
duced plays in the United States. It is a portrait of
the writer as a Brooklyn teenager in 1937, living
with his family in crowded, lower-middle-class cir-
cumstances. Eugene (the young Neil Simon) is the
narrator and central character. His mind is full of
fiercely fantasized dreams of baseball and dimly
fantasized images of girls. The play captures a few
days in the life of a struggling Jewish household
that includes Eugene's hard working father, his
sharp-tongued mother, his older and vastly more
experienced brother Stanley, his widowed aunt
and her two young daughters. As Eugene's father
says, "If you didn't have a problem, you wouldn't
live in this house." Family miseries are used to
raise such enduring issues as sibling resentments,
guilt ridden parent-child relationships and the
hunger for dignity in a poverty stricken world.
"Brings a fresh glow to Broadway..In many
respects his funniest ,richest and consequently
the most affecting of his plays."
-NY Daily News