Deciding to follow the “Live Your Best Life” motto of their Florida senior retirement complex, Nancy tells Bill she wants to end their marriage of 50 years. Thus begins what was once called a “matinee comedy.” Frequented mid-day by mainly women theater-goers, it had more risqué dialogue, jokes, and situations than film decency codes permitted. Bess Wohl’s version, Grand Horizons, holds its own in competition with films today by starring older, usually more restrained people—like its audience at Sarasota’s Asolo Rep.
Suzanne Grodner’s wonderfully adamant divorce decision as Nancy finds Peter Van Wagner’s Bill at first expressionless. (Grodner and Van Wagner’s individual personalities grow throughout the play, going beyond its sit-com type dictates.) The initial scene quickly changes as the couple’s sons, who’ve been told Mom’s leaving, appear with very definite reactions.
First son, lawyer Ben (dedicatedly serious John Rapson), arrives, incredulous and concerned. He’s with his very pregnant wife Jess (Dayna Lee Palya), a therapist who’s going to change her sweet-and-light contribution at entry. Rapson’s Ben, however, never sways from being into the thick of his parents’ situation and trying to manage it. Rapson admirably doesn’t play anything implausibly for laughs, as the script so often seems to try so hard for.
Son Brian, who calls himself a Teacher of Theater, shows himself (and he IS always rightly showy in Zachary Prince’s performance) wanting to learn more about his parents’ relationship and particularly his mother’s motivation. His remarks are full of dramatic references, like to the leading couple in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. He briefly brings into the house Lance Spencer’s effective gay Tommy, who separates quickly when a short sexual encounter seems like it won’t develop further there.
After a non-sexually violent Act I ending, Act II brings a positive sexual character into the plot. Elise Santora as Carla, a sexually liberated member of the community, winningly relates to both Nancy and Bill as the latter’s possible lively lady-friend. Funny enough—perhaps the most really comic thing in the play, in fact—her advice to Grodner’s visibly impressed Nancy should lead her to a satisfied sex life without Bill. Or should it? Or will it? And how will what happens affect Ben, Jess, and Brian?
Asolo’s usual fine scenic effects make Grand Horizons worth watching, from the moment the large stage curtain becomes animated with Florida scenes of seniors enjoying the beach, sailing, sun and fun. Then it goes up to a typical cookie-cutter resort home where Nancy announces she wants a divorce as Bill, in his favorite big chair, eats a snack. Brian Prather’s house is definitely properly designed. It has useful furniture and enough doors to suit even a better farce that might use them— if it weren’t for an important huge window.
Costumes fit the status of each character as well as use in Florida weather. Light and sound are relentlessly appropriate. Director Celine Rosenthal goes for and gets the laughs from the audience that Bess Wohl’s play aims for. As a matinee comedy, it’s good enough even at night.
