When you get old and your testicles get cold and you find your ding a ling turns blue, and you try to diddle and it bends in the middle, what are you going to do?
“Jalopies”, a semi-finalist for the 2011 Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, now playing at the Richard Hugo House , is the story of nine retirement home residents in Seattle as they struggle both with issues of old age and with the ruthless but swarmy new manager. All ten parts are played expertly by the same actor, Mark Cherniack. This play does not fall into the trap that many movies and plays do, of portraying the elderly as one dimensional eccentric characters. All the foibles and eccentricies were there, but the deep emotions, fears and character delineation were also present in a very loving, touching fashion. There was also plenty of comic relief to alleviate the tragedy of old age and dying.
Each of the characters expresses the various dilemmas’ of the elderly. Peter and Esther have been married for 65 years and are about to be separated because Peter is deteriorating more rapidly than Esther. Confined to a wheel chair and all but a paraplegic, Sylvia at 55 has been abandoned by her husband, who does not want to look after a cripple, and has adopted a cynical, negative outlook on life in order to distance herself from the other residents. Hank, a former running champion and his “walking” buddy are separated when Maurice is sent to a nursing home. Esther and Sylvia, who are polar opposites and seem to detest each other, eventually bond and it is Sylvia the suicidal cynic who helps Esther, the touchy feeling positive type, out of her depression after Esther’s husband dies. In many ways the play reminded me of concentration camp literature, with the inmates keeping up their humanity in the face of the fear of death by simple human gestures of love and support.
The efforts of the truly sleezy new manager, to throw out all the “jalopies”-the residents who were truly infirmed, to make way for newer, more presentable, younger and richer tenants, gave the play a loose plot and enough dramatic structure to keep the audience engaged. There were some truly great moments when the residents try to fight against the ruthless management.
Mark Cherniack’s performance as all the characters was outstanding. He changed vocally, physically and linguistically for each of them. In order to break up the monotony of a one person show, Cherniak moved simple boxes around when he changed characters and episodes, which was very effective. The writing was very poetic with some extremely interesting and amusing imagery, and the play was just long enough, only70 minutes.
For all of us baby-boomers who are looking at retirement and trying to cope with elderly parents, this play exposes not just a real problem with elder care facilities, but also prepares all of us for the highs and lows of old age.
JALOPIES by Mark Cherniack, Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Avenue, January 4-20, Fri. and Sat., (January 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19), 7:30 pm. Sun. Jan. 20, 2 pm. Tickets are $14 at the door or at www.brownpapertickets.com