Later Life (Limelight by SVCT)
Later Life by A.R. Gurney, January 20-February 12, 2023 at Limelight by SVCT (Gilroy)
[Photos by Elizabeth Mandel]
Later Life at Limelight by SVCT (Gilroy)
A play by A.R. Gurney
Directed by Bill Tindall
Cast: Jim McCann, Sandi Lewandowski, Roberta Vinkhuyzen, Bruce Pember
Stage Manager: Dana Severin
Set Designer: Andrew Cummings
Costumer: Christine McElroy
Scenic Artist: Clara Shem-Tov
Limelight Executive Director: Peter Mandel
Limelight Managing Director: Emily Shem-Tov
It’s been wonderful to watch this production come together over the past few months and it was fantastic to see such a great audience reaction at the opening weekend performances.
About the show
Later Life had three Off Broadway productions — it premiered in 1993 at Playwrights Horizons, had an extended run and transferred to commercial run at the Westside Theater, and it was revived in 2018 by the Keen Company at the Clurman Theatre. There have been many other regional and community theater productions, but I don’t think any around here.
Ruth and Austin met once when they were young and now, a lifetime later, run into each other on the patio of Boston party. Ruth had never forgotten some of the things Austin had said and is curious to know how his life has turned out. As they catch up and consider a second chance at what they had passed up the first time, they are interrupted by others at the party that engage with them and sprinkle in a taste of what a life with different decisions and considerations might mean.
I had seen a few productions of Gurney’s Love Letters (the most unforgettable for me was a production by Karl Decker and Judy Luster, two of my high school English teachers that we staged in our television studio and who I will forever imagine in those parts), but this was my first time seeing Later Life.
Highlights
I’m too close to the show to really pull out all the highlights, but here are a few things I’ll particularly call out:
Director Bill Tindall writes in his Director’s note that “When I first read this script I was immediately taken back to the movies of the 1940’s with chatty dialogue, beautiful settings and well dressed characters — ones like ‘Thin Man’, ‘Bringing up Baby.’” Andrew Cummings did a great job transforming that black and white film inspiration into a set design of a 1990s high-rise Boston patio, which was then built by Peter Mandel, painted by Clara Shem-Tov (and me, but the fancy parts are all Clara), and then lit by Dana Severin (extending her stage manager amazingness to also designing light and sound and taking care of pretty much everything else) and Clara. When the actors first came out on the set in their black and white costumes designed by Christine McElroy, it was amazing to see the full vision come to life.
Limelight shows are performed on a thrust stage with the audience seated at tables along three sides. For this show, we built a platform down the entire thrust (in the last show, it was just the floor), which changed the dynamics a bit and raised everything up about 4”. It was really interesting to watch the actors and director continuously be mindful of blocking for the set-up, making sure that all the seats had good views of the action and leveraging the upstage raised area as well as way downstage, it’s a very different experience for both actors and audience to be up so close and on all sides.
There are 11 characters in this show — but only 4 actors. Roberta Vinkhuyzen plays the roles of Sally, Marion, Nancy, Esther, and Judith. Bruce Pember plays Jim, Roy, Duane, Ted, Walt. Both have been in many other Limelight shows (including together in last season’s Ripcord) It is amazing to watch them transform into the different characters throughout the show and I love how the costumes and hair design amplify their characterizations.
And since my view of the show is usually from the bar area in the back, I can’t help but call out the signature drinks for this show (each time there’s a new one based on the theme) — a Boston Patio (a variation of a Cranberry Blizzard for the Massachusetts cranberry tie-in for the Boston setting — with both a regular and mocktail version) and Irish Coffee (something to warm you up on the cold evenings!)
Hope you’ll come see it! Purchase your tickets here!
SO impressive.