Feature Article November 20, 2003
LAND O' LAKES NewsWeb HomeEnsemble acting highlighted in The Foursome
The Foursome is a play that is structured around a golf game. Four college buddies set out on the links on the morning after their 15th College Reunion.
Each scene in the play takes place at the tee of a golf hole, and lasts only a few minutes.
As the golf game progresses, the characters slowly reveal secrets they have been keeping from each other, and it is these revelations that provide the forward momentum to the play. Even though The Foursome is a comedy, enough reality comes through from the struggles of the four characters lives to keep the audience wondering what would happen next. Otherwise, the laughs would have died off somewhere around the 5th hole.
The four characters are: Rick, played by Noel Bateman; Cameron, played by Alan MacDonald; Ted, played by Norman Guntensperger; and Donnie, played by Brian Robertston.
Each character brought emotional baggage along with them to the golf game, some of which harkened back to when they were close college friends, and some coming from life experience in the intervening 15 years. Early on it is clear that at least two of the characters, Rick and Ted, have an aggressive, competitive relationship with each other. The other two, family man Donnie and TV ad salesman Cameron, are more likeable.
Brian Robertson, as Donnie, is given an opportunity for physical comedy by the script. Donnie has never played golf, and Roberston managed to create 18 new ways of mangling a golf swing in the play, to the delight of the audience.
Alan MacDonald, as the constant worrier Cameron, plays the character that most wants to see the foursome re-establish the closeness that has been lost over the years.
Norman Guntensperger, as Ted, plays a borderline alcoholic, in his second marriage to a younger woman who is flirting with Buddhism.
Noel Bateman, as Rick, plays a salesman/con man who has moved to Florida, where he plays golf 12 months a year.
The four pair off into teams as Ted and Rick insist on playing for $5 a hole. This provides tension as the pot builds up towards the end of the round.
The men, although in their late 30s or early 40s, have never really grown up, with the possible exception of Donnie, who has spent years ferrying his five kids from piano lessons to hockey tournaments, which he talks about ceaselessly.
The rest of them are so full of complexes and foibles that it is hard to figure out who is most likely to snap. While the play heads into deeper psychological waters, it eventually pulls back. It is meant to be a comedy, and the darker material is not allowed to take over.
This production was extremely well cast. Under George Pearces direction, the four actors inhabited the characters completely. Three of them, Guntensperger, Robertson, and Macdonald, are veterans of NFLT productions and showed a great comfort level with the script and each other. Noel Bateman was the only NFLT rookie in the cast, and he hit the mark perfectly as Noel. All four of them used their bodies and faces to great effect in delivering the comedy.
The sad thing about the play is that Norm Foster, who wrote it, has captured a lot of the pettiness and childishness that men carry with them through their 30s and beyond. (I speak here from personal experience) The nice thing is that the men arent really bad, and the play implies they might actually improve in another 10 or 20 years.
NFLT will be holding auditions on December 8 & 9, 7:30 pm, at the Sharbot Lake High School auditorium, for the spring musical production of Oliver. Look to next weeks News for further details.
