"Is there a doctor in the house?" is a question most theater-goers never hear, so the audience at The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls had trouble taking it seriously last Friday night. Early in the second act of Lars Noren's And Give Us the Shadows, Broadway ve teran actor Jerry Lanning, cast as aging playwright Eugene O'Neill, slipped slowly from his chair toward the floor. Hollis McCarthy, cast as his wife Carlotta, caught him to break his fall, and as she lowered him to the stage, turned gracefully to the audience and asked that startling question.
The audience sat in stunned silence, not knowing whether all this was part of the script. Then Ms. McCarthy said, "This is not part of the play, this is real. We need medical help." Within minutes the North Salem Volunteer Fire Department was on the scene, so to speak. In fact, they were on the stage taking charge of the situation, much to the relief of all concerned.
"The whole experience was surreal," said McCarthy. "Did you notice that the audience had to be convinced it wasn't part of the play? The EMTs thought I was his real wife and kept asking questions I didn't know the answers to!"
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Sometimes it's hard to know the difference between art and reality. The hard reality for The Schoolhouse is that they had to cancel performances scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Jerry Lanning is out on sick leave, but hoping to come back next weekend.
In the meantime, the show must go on! Len Gochman, a Carmel resident and proud Board member of the Schoolhouse Theater, has stepped up to the role of Eugene O'Neill and will serve as understudy for Lanning tonight through this Sunday's matinee performance.
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Gochman's long career in theater and television includes leading roles on Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Little Night Music, Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water and Finian's Rainbow. His Off-Broadway credits include Dear Oscar, Tuscaloosa's Calling Me but I'm Not Going, and Irma La Duce. On TV he has been featured in Another World, and has made guest appearances on Law and Order. His voice has been heard on numerous award winning TV and radio commercials and narr ations.
Gochman is particularly familiar with And Give Us the Shadows because his Swedish wife Marita translated it and some 25 other works by Swedish playwright Lars Noren.
And Give Us The Shadows takes place on Eugene O'Neill's 61st birthday in 1948, as he and his third wife, Carlotta, await the arrival of O'Neill's sons from previous marriages. Noren uses humor, irony and his musicality of language to brilliantly explore this surprisingly contemporary tale of complicated family relationships and enduring paternal love. It is a moving, unflinching epic from Sweden's greatest playwright since August Strindberg.
Entirely fictitious, the play presents a dramatic and plausible account of what might have happened on that day. O'Neill had strained relationships with his sons, each of whom wrestled with bouts of alcoholism and heroin addiction before eventually committing suicide. This is the first full production of the play in the United States.
