review: everything in the garden at the quogue community hall

by Sabrina C. Mashburn

The Hampton Theatre Company brings Albee’s chilling scenario to life, with multi-dimensional characters and richly acted subtext. David Seiniger seems too intense and jocular at first for the role of Richard, the content suburban husband. As the plot progresses and his roughness exposed, however, the audience is let in on the secret that Richard was not born into this country club society. With gestures and a temper that seem more at home on the docks of On the Waterfront, Richard is clearly different than his soft, moneyed friends. His wife, Jenny, is played to perfection by Jessica Ellwood. The protagonist and rightly so, Ms. Ellwood carries the production through every scene with physical delicateness complemented by a mental strength that fills her character with complexity. Her despicable deeds are somehow forgivable, because Jenny seems so levelheaded and endearing. Ms. Elwood’s Jenny never sheds the “prim” demeanor with which she begins, no matter how dark her secrets become. Ms. Elwood is a multi-faceted performer and her subtle changes in facial expression and body movement belie her loss of innocence as she settled into her role as a “common prostitute” even before the script reveals what she has done.

Ellwood is not without help, however, and much of her transformation is mirrored by subtle set and costume changes throughout the play. As she brings in more and more money, chintzy garden pillows disappear, innocent fresh-cut wildflowers are replaced with hothouse roses and slick kitten heels and a fitted, velvet-trimmed dress replace her simple cotton housedress.

Andrew Botsford, a 25-year veteran of the Hampton Theatre Company, played the narrator, Jack. Drunk and wealthy, Jack longs for romance with the formerly virtuous Jenny, and is crestfallen when he learns that she could have been had months ago, for a price. Playing an inebriated character is one of the most difficult tasks for an actor, as it calls for complete mastery of appearing to have limited control of the voice and body, and actor’s only tools with which to convey his character. It is therefore understandable that Botsford sometimes retreats into lush caricature. He endears himself to the audience early on in the play, making any later slipups forgivable.

Ellen di Stasi, as Mrs. Toothe, lends an air of mystery and darkness to the stage each time she sets foot upon it. As the Madame she is perfect, never saying anything out of the ordinary, but implying the worst while appealing to the weakest parts of each character’s delicate nature. Her British accent is overdone to the utmost, which makes her all the more believable as the messenger of unknown forces sent to corrupt women and make their husbands dependant upon the fee for “appointments” only she can arrange.

Jenny and Richard’s son, played by local Westhampton Beach High School student Billy Flynn, was the moral anchor of the production, and delivered his lines with the appropriate innocence and incredulity of a child thrust into such a bizarre, adult situation.

Kathy Decker, Gordon Gray, Claire Lyons, Matt Palace, Roy Timmerman and Sue Vinski make up the party of suburban couples living simultaneously in the underbelly and upper crust of society, lending the perfect air of pseudo-snobbery to the party scenes. With each passing moment, these characters shed their faççades to reveal people rife with faults, yet frighteningly similar those we have all encountered in high-society circles.

The Hampton Theatre Company’s production of Everything in The Garden proves that great theatre is not limited to New York City. Even on the diminutive stage of the shingled cottage that is the Quogue Community Hall, art can and does thrive, much to the delight of Long Islanders lucky enough to have a seat.

If you missed Everything in The Garden, be sure to catch one of the Hampton Theatre Company’s performances of Tom Dulack’s Breaking Legs at the Quogue Community Hall from March 15 to April 1.