Posted on Tue, Apr. 1, 2008
Growing old gracefully is one thing, but growing old artfully is the idea that propels the four-person
Quartet, in a charming, cheery production at the Walnut Street Theatre's Studio 3.
It's set in Britain, in a country house for retired musical artists, mostly charity cases. Three of them were opera singers, good enough to have performed on a decades-old recording of Verdi's
Rigoletto, just rereleased.
The newest resident was the fourth star of that production - now down on her luck, retired for decades yet still commanding an ovation when she enters a theater. (Or so she says.) She's also the divorced wife, several marriages back, of one of the other three, and she's not sure what she's got herself into at this place. "I thought there'd be a great many more - what shall we say? - virtuosi," she complains.
It makes for fun, especially when the four plan the birthday celebration of Verdi himself. Should they resurrect the famous quartet from
Rigoletto? Could they, if they even wanted to?
Quartet is by Ronald Harwood, whose film adaptation of
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has been running in theaters, and who won a screenplay Oscar in 2002 for his remarkable
The Pianist.
Quartet is endearing, a look at old age through the eyes of has-been hot-shots, whose motto now is "N.S.P." - no self-pity. The play sports no pretensions; it doesn't find deeper meaning in living out life in a home than "when we join the heavenly choir, someone will take our rooms," as one character muses.
But the situation is the point, not a message, and Harwood manipulates his plot well. Veteran Walnut Street Theatre director Malcolm Black gives
Quartet a zesty staging on Glen Sears' pleasant music-room set.
Strong ensemble acting - each portrayal a honed character - distinguishes the evening. Wendy Scharfman's a perfect aging diva, with a one-upmanship air she wears like a birthright. Drucie McDaniel's character is the most fragile in mental faculties, and she starts out with an exaggerated portrayal but grows into someone real.
Tom Markus plays the diva's former husband and the most serious of the lot with down-to-earth sincerity, and John Peakes is the dirty old man with an equal relish for the quick joke and the quick poke. Watch the entirely natural way Peakes reacts to the proceedings when he's not a part of the dialogue - it's an entertaining lesson in smart acting.
Quartet
Presented by the Walnut Street Theatre at the Walnut's Studio 3, 825 Walnut St., through April 13. Tickets: $28. Information: 215-574-3550 or www.walnutstreettheatre.org.
Contact staff writer Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727 or hshapiro@phillynews.com. Quartet
Through April 13 at the Walnut Street Theatre. Tickets: $28. Information: 215-
574-3550, www.walnutstreettheatre.org
