"Italian American Reconciliation" at Longwharf a lesson in growing up

three stars

(one star is poor, two is fair, three is good, and four is excellent)

Location: 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven

Production: Written by John Patrick Shanley. Directed by Eric Ting. Set design by Scott Bradley. Costume design by Linda Cho. Lighting design by Russell Champa. Sound design by Jill Pickett.

Running time: 2 hours including one 15-minute intermission.

Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Sundays at 7 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. and Saturday matinees at 3 p.m. through May 22.

Tickets: $60 to $70. For more information call their box office at 203-787-4282, or visit their website at www.longwharf.org

ACTOR…CHARACTER

John Procaccino … Aldo Scalicki

Michael Crane … Huey Maximillian Buonfigliano

Stephanie DiMaggio … Teresa

Lisa Birnbaum … Janice

Socorro Santiago … Aunt May

NEW HAVEN-Growing up is hard to do, at any age. That’s the theme in a nutshell of “Italian American Reconciliation” written by John Patrick Shanley, who wrote the screenplay for “Moonstruck” at about the same time as this play in the late 1980s.

More recently Shanley wrote “Doubt, a Parable,” a very different play from this one, and one that I just happened to see earlier this weekend at the Little Theatre of Manchester.

This production at the Longwharf Theatre directed by Eric Ting, moves the 1980s play to the present time, with Aldo Scalicki, played by the affable John Procaccino, reminiscing about an important event in his life over 20 years ago.

As Aldo’s recalls, his best friend, the wiry and hyper Huey Maximillian Buonfigliano, played by Michael Crane, is distressed because he can’t get over his 3-year divorce from his former wife, the sadistic Janice, played by the lovely Lisa Birnbaum.

Buonfigliano has taken up with another gal, the kind and understanding Teresa (Stephanie DiMaggio) but it’s no good. Huey feels that something has been taken from him, and he needs to get back with Janice to regain his confidence.

Being his best bud, Aldo does his best to talk his looney friend out of his hair-brained scheme, but gets nowhere.

“Talking to you is like being alone,” Aldo says, exasperated.

Aldo then decides to help Huey by trying to seduce Janice, even though he’s scared to death of her. Thinking that if he seduces Janice then Huey will forget about her. Weird logic.

And he has good reason to fear her. Janice killed Huey’s dog with a zip gun, and then tried to shoot Huey dead with that same zip gun, but it jammed.

Now Aldo is unmarried and in his 50s looking back on this episode that he has told many times. It is a story that defines him, or at least who he thinks he is, which is tantamount to the same thing. He is a mama’s boy who is afraid to grow up, take a chance, and settle down with a woman.

They are all Italian Americans, except for Teresa’s Aunt May, played by Socorro Santiago, who is Latino, which is slightly confusing, even though Santiago is terrific as the wise and thoughtful May. She has some good insight into life and facing up to fears and moving beyond them that Aldo tries to take to heart.

But, its not clear if he is going to move on, or just repeat this episode in his life as a cautionary tale to remain alone and lonely.

He blames his fears on his relationship with his father, which might be true, but still, his father’s dead, he says, and he recognizes he has to live his own life.

At the end of Act One we finally get to see Janice, but here she appears all in white, stands on a stage that lifts into the air and at the top of the lift, she takes out a gun and points it at Aldo. This was not in the original script, but an addition by Ting, and although it gets a big laugh, it feels out of place from the rest of the play.

The set, by Scott Bradley, is the remnants of the end of a wedding reception, in a Veterans of Foreign War’s hall. The level of detail is extraordinary, and feels just like a real banquet hall.

The play starts out with Aldo sitting in one of the chairs at a table on his own, drinking some wine, while the accordion player (DiMaggio) plays in the background. I’m still not sure if the accordion player is also supposed to be Teresa or not.

It starts gradually, with the lights still on the audience, which makes the transition to the world of the play feel a little awkward. Part of the same set becomes Huey’s apartment and then it becomes Janice’s backyard, which takes some stretching of the imagination.

Shanley’s language is funny and insightful. When Aldo gets mad he says, “I feel the pulse in my nose.”

When Aldo decides to seduce Janice, he refers to it as a “military objective. Janice is like taking a hill” but then he goes on to say, “my stomach is against this.”

Some of the humor just doesn’t translate to the page, because it is the context and the delivery that mean everything and the actors all have terrific timing and good instincts.

All the characters mean well and are trying as best they can to get through life with dignity and love.

As May tells Aldo, “Open your heart and forget your fear. Stop this scaredness of women.”

Aldo takes this to heart and tries to share what wisdom he has gained with the audience.

“In the end you are dead,” Aldo says, “In the beginning you are taken care of.” Everything in the middle takes courage.

“The only success is be able to live,” he says. That’s not a bad motto to live by.