The serious mid-to-late 20th family drama had gone quite a few different places . . . walking into Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s The Subject Was Roses, I expected something profoundly dark. The 1964 drama about an adult son returning to his two parents after serving overseas in World War II didn’t sound very cheeryparticularly as it explored alcoholism and emotional abuse . . . It was kind of a relief to find out that the darkness in Frank D. Gilroy’s Roses doesn’t have the sinister edge of A Streetcar Named Desire, or the overwhelming darkness found in Long Day’s Journey Into Night or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
There are three characters herea mother, a father and a son. We see the entire action of the play move back and forth between a kitchen and a living room. In the course of the play, the actual events of the play are merely extensions of who these people are. This is essentially one long three person character sketch. It’s an audience’s opportunity to get to know three characters delivered to the stage by three actors under the direction of C. Michael Wrighta director who consistently delivers very solid, very intense drama to the stage every year. Here are some initial impressions of the three characters and the actors who play them:
John Clearyplayed by James TasseA coffee salesman living in the Bronx in the ‘40’s. He’s done pretty well for himself. There’s some of the charm of the salesman in the character present in a very earthy performance by Tasse. There’s a kind of gritty pragmatism about him that can also be as stubborn as gravity itself. That Tasse is able to make this a like-able quality says a lot about his talent as an actor.
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Nettie Clearyplayed by Tami WokentinJohn Cleary’s wife. Like so many other women of the era, she didn’t have much option outside of being a housewife. Workentin plays her with remarkable strength. She visits her mother quite often . . . family is very important to her. That she and John only had one child says a lot about her relationship with him. There’s a connection between John and Nettie, but it’s not what it should be.
Timmy Clearyplayed by Nicholas HarazinA veteran back from the war. John and Nettie’s son. He’s been away for years and come back a changed manperhaps better adjusted than he was prior to the war. It’s only mentioned in passing while he’s not actually in the room, but he had seen the horrors of a concentration camp firsthandnot an easy thing to live with. And Harazin plays a man who has returned from the war with a love for lifeon remarkably solid footing for someone who has seen the horrors of war. He’s still battling demons from his life prior to the wardemons that seem a lot more intense than anything he’d confronted overseas.
It’s a very compelling couple of hours with a family from 60-plus years ago. Wright and company have done a really, really good job here.
Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s The Subject Was Roses runs through December 12th at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre. A more concise review of the show runs in this week's Shepherd-Express.
