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Article published Dec 4, 2005
 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
FST's 'Brooklyn Boy' mixes comedy, tragedy

By Charlie Huisking

In the opening scene of the play "Brooklyn Boy," writer Eric Weiss returns to his old neighborhood to visit his ailing father in the hospital.

After years of struggle, Eric has hit the big time. His hot new novel (also called "Brooklyn Boy") is all the rage. Hollywood producers are interested in a film adaptation.

But Eric's father is hardly impressed. When he learns the book is No. 11 on the best-sellers list, he sniffs, "You mean there is an 11? I thought it only went to 10." He also complains because Eric dedicated the book to "my mother and my father," rather than mentioning his parents by name.

The scene will likely draw chuckles when "Brooklyn Boy" opens at Florida Studio Theatre this week. But it will be laughter of the nervous kind. For humor is mixed with pain in Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies' rueful play about reconnecting with the past and finding one's identity.

"I think if we play it right, people will laugh like hell, and then wonder what they are laughing about," said Robert Gomes, who plays Eric in the FST production.

"What I like about the play is that it isn't black and white. There are lots of shades of gray. And every time you think you have a handle on a scene as an audience member, Margulies pulls the rug out from under you. It's hard to get ahead of the play, because the writing is so good."

During his stay in Brooklyn, Eric also sees his estranged wife and a boyhood friend. The experiences force him to examine some issues he has avoided.

In Act II, set mostly in Hollywood, Eric has an awkward encounter with a female admirer and meets with a producer who wants him to "improve" his adaptation by making it less Jewish.

"In the course of one weekend, Eric has all these huge decisions to make," said Gomes, who last appeared at FST in "Death by Misadventure." "He has to let go of some things he was holding on to. He's being pressured to compromise the integrity of his writing. He has been stuck at a point in his life, and now he has to move on to a new chapter."

Margulies has drawn on his Brooklyn roots before, in early plays such as "Found a Peanut" and "The Loman Family Picnic." But his drama "Dinner With Friends," the winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, explored other themes.

He refocused on his Brooklyn experiences at the urging of a longtime friend, playwright Herb Gardner, Margulies says in the introduction to "Brooklyn Boy."

He followed Gardner's advice "with the queasy curiosity of a prodigal son looking homeward," he said. "Scenes began to lay themselves out; I started to get a sense of the landscape of a new play. It would not be a sentimental journey bathed in nostalgia, but a fresh exploration of old themes, clear-eyed and present tense."

Each scene in the play informs one that has come before, but not in a traditional way, Gomes said.

"It's like stringing beads on a necklace. By the time the play ends, you have the whole necklace. But it's not like a typical play, where you know where you're going at the end of Act I. In this case, you'll learn something in one scene that will make you realize Eric was lying in a previous scene.

"And the play is partly about the lies we tell each other, the lies we tell ourselves and the identity we project to other people. The play asks how you can determine who you are if you are a different person with everybody you encounter."

Michael O. Smith, who plays Eric's father, said the play unfolds like an onion being peeled.

"You're always seeing different layers, learning more about what Eric has dealt with and what he'll have to deal with in the future if some changes aren't made," Smith said.

All of the characters are experiencing some sort of crisis, said Kate Alexander, the director of "Brooklyn Boy."

"That's what I love about it," she said. "They are all at a seminal point where they have to address the questions 'Who am I?' and 'Where am I going?'"