Northlight Theatre
www.northlight.org
Tickets: 847-673-6300
Through November 7 at Northlight
Open run at Royal George theatre beginning November 12th
There are plays that touch you, plays that make you laugh, and plays that just make you glad you went to the theatre. Jeff Baron's Visiting Mr. Green, now at Northlight, is all three of those.
Visiting Mr. Green is not a play that deals with any new issues, nor does it try to re-invent the wheel with how it deals with them. But that's okay. With all the cynicism in our society, it's nice to see human relationships dealt with in a mature, gentle manner. Just as with Chekov's plays, Visiting Mr. Green is a slice of life.
B.J. Jones' production of Jeff Baron's first play is a well-paced, well-acted intimate piece of theatre. Visiting Mr. Green tells the story of Ross Gardiner (Guy Adkins), a young American Express executive sentenced by the court to six months of weekly visits to Mr. Green (Mike Nussbaum), an 86 year-old man that he almost ran over with his car. What begins as a series of short and slightly hostile encounters turns to an unlikely friendship. Mr. Green, recently widowed and set in his ways, is a real challenge for Ross, whose impatience with Mr. Green shows almost from the first. Mr. Green, a man whose outdated ideas are a source of frustration for Ross, is a lonely man whose wife did everything for him, leaving him helpless, unable to shop for groceries, cook or clean his own apartment. From these differences emerge an understanding that transcends their age gap, and gives us hope for us all.
Director B.J. Jones, who is also Northlight's artistic director, approaches the play with a gentle touch and lets his actors do what they do best. Jones, who has had a great deal of success at Northlight since he has taken the helm, has cast the play with two of Chicago's finest actors. Guy Adkins gives a remarably sensitive portrayal as Ross, a man who at first is clearly annoyed that he has to make his visits to this man, but you see him begin to realize that in Mr. Green, he may be seeing a future version of himself. Mike Nussbaum does some of his best work as Mr. Green, a man who feels cheated that his wife died before he did, and when Ross starts to visit him, just wants to be left alone. As his defenses begin to wear down, he sees that Ross' visits are giving him something to live for. The sound design and original music by Joe Cerqua deserves a special mention for tying the numerous scenes together into a cohesive whole.
Visiting Mr. Green is a quiet, passionate play about human relationships that will touch your heart and make you think about your life choices.
