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September 6 - 28, 2002 "Did you ever notice there’s something wrong with everyone on Pop's side of the family?" the teenager Jay points out in LOST IN YONKERS. Truer words could not be spoken about the eccentric gallery of characters that Neil Simon creates in this award-winning comedy-drama. This nostalgic comedy was Simon's twenty-seventh play to open on Broadway, and garnered him the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, as well as, the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards, among others. Critics and audiences alike seemed to connect to the story of family ties that bind and chafe. Installing three generations of a Jewish family under one roof, Simon illustrates how we are molded by our families, whether they are nurturing or destructive.
The play begins in August of 1942 in Yonkers, New York in the early days of World War II. Jay and Artie's mother has died, and due to high medical debts, their father is forced to leave them with their tyrannical grandmother while he takes a traveling sales job in order to repay the loan sharks. Over the next ten months, the two impish boys live in close quarters above the family candy store with relatives that have been strangers up until now, i.e. Grandma Kurnitz and her misfit children whom she dominates. Bella, their mentally challenged aunt who yearns for children and a home of her own, becomes the boys' confidant. Uncle Louie is a small-time mobster on the run from his "business partners". He shows up at Grandma Kurnitz’ place to hide out for awhile, and inadvertently gives the boys several life lessons in survival. Their Aunt Gert suffers from a strange breathing "condition" that mysteriously appears whenever she walks through Grandma’s door. Over the months, the household tension builds, culminating in a second-act showdown between the grandmother and Bella.
This production is supported,
in part, with a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment
for the Arts. Carpenter Square Theatre is an Allied Arts member agency. |
