The Intimate Complexity of ‘I Never Sang for My Father’

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Photo by Troy Freund Photography

Boulevard Theatre ‘I Never Sang for My Father’

Rehearsal for Boulevard Theatre's ‘I Never Sang for My Father’

The intimate concerns of an aging couple and their adult son surface on an equally intimate stage as Boulevard Theater presents the family drama I Never Sang for My Father. Matt Specht delivers intricate emotional depth to the stage as a man who has recently lost his wife. He’s dealing with a couple of parents who are nearing the end of their lives. The two actors playing the man’s parents are veterans of the local theater scene with tremendous talent who deliver a great deal of intimate complexity and nuance to the roles of a couple of people who have been married forever. David Ferrie holds quite a bit of grits as a retired man who is suffering from a heavy cough and the miasma of memory that clings in gentles repetition to every moment of his life. Joan End shines with a beautiful resilience as a woman who just might be bit closer to her son than she is to her own husband. 

Pat Sturgis and Bob Balderson lend considerable charm and appeal around the edges of the central ensemble in a few different supporting roles. They weave in and out of the center of the action with a clever sense of dramatic momentum that serves the staged reading format quite well. Contacting against their experience is the younger Angelita Colin who plays a few younger women including a nurse and a waitress. 

The coziness of the back room at Sugar Maple maintains an unflinching focus on the inner emotional worlds of three people grappling with some of the bigger issues of life, death and everything in between on a Thanksgiving week. 

The Boulevard Theatre’s staged reading of I Never Sang for My Father runs through Sunday, Dec. 1 at Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave. For more information, visit milwaukeeboulevardtheatre.com.