THEATRE REVIEW:
VISITING MR. GREEN

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
01 FEB 2012
R: 3/5

Pictured: Aiden deSalaiz, Theodore Bikel

TORONTO - As he approaches the ripe old age of 88, there is little, one suspects, that anyone could teach the great Theodore Bikel about acting. But, happily, there is still plenty that this aging lion of the stage can teach the world about the profession to which he has devoted a lifetime — and happily, most of it is up there on the stage of the Jane Mallett Theatre.

Bikel, of course, is the man who famously originated the role of Baron von Trapp on stage in The Sound of Music and he delighted Toronto audiences in his solo effort, Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears, when he brought it to town under the aegis of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre a few years ago. And it is under the auspices of the HGJT that Bikel returns once again to the Toronto stage, this time out in the title role of Jeff Baron’s VISITING MR. GREEN, which opened Tuesday.

It’s a play that tells a simple story. Ross Gardiner (played by Aidan deSalaiz), a 30-ish young exec on the rise, has apparently been indulging in some careless driving. So, when the play begins, Gardiner is about to pay the first of six-months worth of court-ordered weekly visits to the home of the man he almost ran down when he was behind the wheel. But his putative host, an aging Jewish widower by the name of Mr. Green, proves less than enthusiastic with the arrangement and demands to be left alone.

But though Gardiner would clearly love to oblige, there is the matter of the court order — so, slowly, over the weeks, the visits continue and a friendship of sorts evolves. The lonely old man is coaxed into a more social frame of mind while the younger learns more and more about a Jewish heritage that has heretofore been largely ignored. It’s all very predictable and sweet. Eventually, however, the two clash. As the geriatric Mr. Green recalls his late wife, his newfound fondness for his weekly visitor leads to a discussion of the virtues of matrimony and the revelation that, at least in 1996 New York, matrimony is something clearly beyond the reach of Gardiner and his gay brethren. Mr. Green’s subsequent refusal to accept Gardiner’s disclosure threatens to stifle their friendship, but instead, eventually leads to a revelation that will ultimately bring them closer together.

As plays go in this world of same sex-marriage, it’s all very “where-were-you-in-’62”-ish, despite the fact that it was written in 1996. And while one can forgive the playwright for not anticipating the advances society would make in the near future, it is harder finally to understand how he could create a gay character in 1996 New York without once mentioning AIDS, which, at that point, had come perilously close to wiping out an entire generation of gay men. It’s a little like setting a Jew down in post-war Germany without ever mentioning the Nazis.

But while the playwright takes few chances, director Jen Shuber plays it even safer as she brings the production to life on Cameron Porteous’ effective set, never challenging the hugely talented Bikel to portray his character’s hidebound bigotry as anything more than a charming quirk. As for deSalaiz, his Gardiner is delivered up in pretty white-bread fashion too, as under Shuber’s direction he soft-sells the small bit of bitchiness his character is allowed and otherwise does everything he can to make Bikel seem all the more lovable in the process. While Bikel’s Mr. Green all but wallows in cliché, de Salaiz’s Gardiner avoids it like — well, the plague.

So while Bikel indeed offers a master class in the art of acting, it finally seems to be more a demonstration of snorkeling in the sea of character acting, rather than deep sea diving.