Articles on:

Goodnight Children Everywhere
by Richard Nelson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THEATER REVIEW

World War II made many more victims than fell on the battle fields
by Anne-Margret Bellavoine, Northern Lights

May 10, 2004

After France fell in the hands of the Germans, and before Pearl Harbor, England carried much of the weight of the Second World War. When the French developed a fragile peaceful cohabitation with the enemy or went underground to fight, England suffered the brunt of Germany's wrath in the form of the Blitz Krieg whose relentless bombings maimed so much of its urban landscape.

If the young princesses were kept at the palace by their iron willed mother, much of the rest of London's children were sent to havens in the remote countryside of the West where families of uneven aptitude for foster parenthood nonetheless welcomed the frightened youngsters and offered safety if not love.

Richard Nelson's Oliver Award winning drama follows the plight of such children after they returned home during the post war years.

Three sisters, Betty (Desiree Lyons), the oldest at 21, a nurse, middle one Ann (Jocelyn Brown), pregnant, and vivacious youngest Vi (Erika Miller) eagerly await the return of their younger brother Peter (Brian Weed), now 17, who was sent to relatives in Canada six years earlier when he was only 11.
The sacrifices made by England were of a magnitude only the British knew, as I often heard my own English mother tell my French father. The food shortages and rationing did not stop when the Luftwaffe did, but coupons were alive and well as the family produces an unheard of cake (yes, white flour, butter, eggs and sugar!), to celebrate the prodigal return, as Vi paints pencil lines on the back of her calves to suggest seamed nylons.

The flat has been partitioned by the landlord, and the bathroom is now leased to another tenant, the three sisters cramped in the remainder of the flat made more empty by the death of both parents during the war, but awkwardly filled by Mike (Richard Comeau), a lecherous doctor twice her age Ann married as of duty to sustain the family.

Young men laid down their lives, and in their wake followed an overabundance of marriageable young ladies with no hopes for suitors, including Betty.
Much as the girls are excited by the return of their brother, a boy when he left, looking like a man as he returns, they are also deeply ambivalent about reacquainting themselves with this Americanized stranger. They fuss clumsily as he fumbles to return the awkward affection they proffer.

So much time has elapsed, and he has to be told every detail of their ordeals while he was away.

Ann is deeply bitter about her experience in exile with little sister Vi and sour about her marriage. Her advanced pregnancy confines her to the flat while her sisters are out and about, Betty working for her husband who has straying eyes on her, and Vi trying her hand at becoming a worldly singer and actress.
Hugh (Beach Vickers) is a colleague of Mike's with a nubile daughter of his own, Rose (Sarah Moreau). Father and daughter have definite romantic and practical views on the members of this family.

Orphanage in adolescence makes for lost souls in life as I have experienced first hand. Parental death prematurely catapults children into an adult world they are not prepared for with no one to turn to for comfort and guidance, reaping turmoil and confusion as they struggle to adapt to their new roles.

This nostalgic glimpse at a difficult time in European and world history, takes an unflinching look at the psychological scars inflicted to its victims.

The birth of Mike and Ann's baby offers a window to the hopeful dawn of the Baby Boomer's momentous reign we are beginning to exit.

Director Oanh Nguyen's set of a modest English interior, decorated by Annie Mezzacappa, is cozily lit by designer Darryl Hovis. Erika Miller provides the post world war II shabby chic look. Dean Anderson composed the music, focused on the wireless and the haunting title melody, the theme song of a popular period BBC program. Michael Buss as dialect coach tutored the cast in their British accent.

Strong sexual content makes this piece an adult affair only.

 

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THEATER REVIEW

'Children' negotiate war's trauma
Chance Theater's staging retains the warmth and subtlety of the 1999 Olivier Award winner.

by Eric Marchese, Special to the Register

Friday, May 14, 2004

There's a point in the World War II drama "Goodnight Children Everywhere" where you begin to realize that playwright Richard Nelson isn't strictly concerned with portraying the feel-good story of a group of siblings reunited at their South London flat after the war. Nelson traces the scars that run deep into the past for three sisters and their youngest brother, now teens and young adults - scars now exposed by the trauma that war has wrought upon their family.

It's clear from the play's Southern California premiere, at the Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, why "Goodnight Children Everywhere" captured the Society of London Theatre's Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play of 1999:
It's a nuanced, finely tuned piece of writing that's nevertheless naturalistic and realistic. At the Chance, director Oanh Nguyen and his cast and crew have given this outstanding script the time and care it deserves. The result is a production with appeal well beyond the time, place, individuals and circumstances the play depicts.

The jumping-off point is Hitler's 1940 Blitzkrieg of London, which induced hundreds of thousands of parents to send their children away to safety throughout Britain and across the Atlantic. The play opens in the spring of 1945. With the war over, the scattered children of one such family return home. Eldest daughter Betty, now 21, remained in London, serving as a nurse. The next-oldest, Ann, and younger sister Vi were sent by train to live in Wales. Little prankster Peter, the youngest at 11, was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in Alberta, Canada, in 1939. "Goodnight Children" views the action more or less through his eyes, as he returns home a quiet, withdrawn young man of 17.

The drama skillfully weaves back story and exposition into the play's warmly sentimental opening scenes. The children's father was killed in the fighting in France, their mother crushed to death in a London bomb blast. Though Betty has been in love with Mike, the doctor she works most closely with, he has instead married Ann, with their first child on the way. Once this clan gets over the initial hurdles of having grown apart for six years - and the sisters adjust to Peter's Canadian accent - rivalries and unresolved desires begin to surface. Peter gradually learns that none of his elders is as virtuous as he had imagined, making the bulk of "Goodnight Children Everywhere" the story of his coming of age. Nelson's text is a rich tapestry of the emotional undercurrents of these four siblings, forced by world events to grow up too fast, and Nguyen's staging retains this complex psychological texture, with powerfully subtle acting by all. In their looks and facial expressions, Desiree Lyons, Jocelyn A. Brown, Erika C. Miller and Brian C. Weed bear a family resemblance, and thanks to dialogue coach Michael Buss, Nguyen's entire cast sounds convincing.

The statuesque Lyons makes a beaming, pretty, yet insecure Betty, whose subtle competition with Ann for Mike's attention underscores the tensions in Ann and Mike's marriage. As the bubbly Vi, Miller shows the active imagination and flights of fancy befitting a would-be film actress.

Brown admirably fills the focal role of Ann, the practical sister who has always felt compelled to responsibly parent her siblings, yet who now feels heavy, unattractive and especially competitive with all women - especially her sisters. Ann's incestuous feelings toward Peter are morally reprehensible - one scene is particularly explicit, yet tastefully handled. Brown, however, allows us to empathize with Ann's titanic struggle to temper her impulses with devotion and tolerance.

As the naïve young outsider among battle-scarred yet optimistic Brits, Weed's Peter is guarded and taciturn, intensely studying those around him while struggling to find his place within the new family structure. Given minimal dialogue, Weed uses expressions, gestures and body language to communicate the lad's churning emotions. Richard Comeau's Mike is a gentle, reflective soul with a fatal weakness for, and lack of comprehension of, beautiful young women. With an appearance and style reminiscent of actor Oliver Reed, Beach Vickers is tactless and colorfully lecherous as Mike's friend and colleague, and Sarah Moreau is subtle and self-effacing as his attractive, teen-age daughter.

The Chance production draws much of its realism, and an exquisite sense of lyricism, from solid attention to detail. Faithfully lighted by Darryl B. Hovis, Nguyen's set design for the living room of the family flat is middle-class in every way, from its comfortable but unimposing furnishings to period-perfect props by Annie Mezzacappa that include a wooden radio, sepia-tone photos and copies of Punch magazine. Miller's costumes likewise ideally pinpoint both the era and the family's income bracket. Dean Anderson's original musical score is tender and wistful, and Ron Wyand's sound design, which prominently features Vera Lynn's sad, tender rendition of the sweet, dreamy lullaby "Goodnight Children Everywhere," deftly transports us to a London desperately longing for a way of life that it can never regain.

WHEN Through June 13. 8 p.m. Fridays, 4 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays
WHERE The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills
HOW MUCH $17 ($15 students/seniors)
LENGTH 2 hours, 35 minutes
SUITABILITY Teens and adults (for subject matter)
INFORMATION (714) 777-3033 or www.chancetheater.com

 

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THEATER REVIEW

GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE
The Chance Theater

Reviewed By Shirle Gottlieb, Back Stage West

Friday, May 20, 2004

As the recipient of the 2003 Orange County Award for Outstanding Arts Organization, the Chance Theater continues to build a solid reputation for itself. Founded in 1999, this aspiring repertory company is determined to prove that "a smart, lively, inquisitive theatre audience exists in Orange County, one that responds to rich ideas, startling language, compelling content, and the development of new talent."

Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere seems to follow this theatre's criteria. Set in 1945 London, it revolves around the reunion of 17-year-old Peter with his three elder sisters after World War II disrupted their lives forever. Before the 1940 German Blitzkrieg, parents sent their children out of the city to safety. Now the war is over, and shy, reticent Peter returns to London from Canada, where he has lived since he was 11. Nothing is as it was before. His father died in battle, his mother was killed in an air raid, their flat has been subdivided, everything is rationed. It's only natural that Peter and his three sisters would be nervous about the reunion.

Under the measured direction of Oanh Nguyen, a superb cast enacts the long (almost three hours) story as it unfolds with foreboding: slowly, meticulously, and methodically. In spite of their smiles, warm embraces, and forced gaiety, we sense from the opening scene that something is wrong. Secrets are carefully hidden under the facade of each character that surface during the course of the drama. The eldest sister, Betty (Desiree Lyons), is a lonely unmarried nurse who works in doctor Mike's office. She was in love with middle-aged Mike (Richard Comeau), but he married the middle sister, Anne. Now Anne (Jocelyn A. Brown) is pregnant, depressed, secretive, and very angry. The youngest, Vi (Erika C. Miller), is a carefree wannabe actor who gets parts by sleeping with the director. The three sisters live together in the flat paid for by Mike, and each pretends to be content. When Peter (Brian C. Weed) comes home from Canada, it changes the family chemistry. Nelson's bittersweet portrait of one English family that was damaged by war plucks at our heartstrings, but he takes much too long to paint his picture.

The play's title is taken from a popular children's song that was sung each night over the BBC. That, plus "There'll Be Blue Birds Over the White Cliffs of Dover," helped boost morale during the war.

Goodnight Children Everywhere, presented by The Chance Theatre Repertory Company at The Chance Theater, 5552 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim. Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. 4 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. May 8-June 13. $15-17. (714) 777-3033.

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THEATER REVIEW

Blitz-torn but back together again
Reviewed By David C. Nichols, Los Angeles Times

Friday, May 21, 2004

"The scars we leave," goes the defining statement of "Goodnight Children Everywhere" at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim Hills. In its Southern California premiere, Richard Nelson's 1999 Olivier winner about four Blitz-torn siblings reunited is a haunting contemplation of war's unseen legacies.

Five years have passed since the children left London in 1940. Beautiful eldest daughter Betty (Desiree Lyons) remained, becoming a nurse. Vivacious youngest sister Vi (Erika C. Miller) returned from Wales seeking an acting career. Middle child Ann (Jocelyn A. Brown) married aging doctor Mike (Richard Comeau), whose child she is carrying.

The sisters and brother-in-law await baby brother Peter (Brian C. Weed), who departed for Canada as a tyke. He returns on the threshold of manhood, at which point "Goodnight Children" becomes a disturbing examination of the psychological damage these orphans endured.

Director-set designer Oanh Nguyen helms a resourceful realization. Miller's deft '40s wardrobe, Ron Wyand's period sound bites, Darryl B. Hovis' lighting and Dean Anderson's original music are evocative.

The impressive cast sports excellent dialects (courtesy of Michael Buss) and layered portrayals. The kids actually seem related, and though Weed needs more colors, he and the incisive Brown create unsettling electricity. Beach Vickers' and Sarah Moreau's father-daughter interlopers round out a fine roster.

Their sustained intrigue is remarkable, considering that Nguyen honors Nelson's calibrated nuances at the expense of pace. For that matter, Nelson's representative exchanges grow implausible on reflection, some discussions at best unlikely in postwar England. Nevertheless, the effect is vivid, and recommends these battle-scarred children.

 

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THEATER ARTICLE

Goodnight Children Everywhere
First SoCal Production of Olivier-winning drama
by Daniel Bernstein, AOL Digital City

May 27, 2004

The Olivier award, the British equivalent of the Tony, is one of theater's most prestigious prizes, and Goodnight Children Everywhere won the top honor in 1999. Now it is making its first SoCal appearance, directed by The Chance's own Oanh Nguyen. The tale takes place in England after WW2, when a set of siblings separated during the war are reunited. Though each has changed in the years since their separation, they are bonded by unresolved childhood issues. The ensemble cast features Jocelyn A. Brown, Richard Comeau, Erika C. Miller, Brian C. Weed, Desiree Lyons, Sarah Moreau and Beach Vickers.

 

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