"It was a lovely run..."

Paul Lee said it best: "It was a lovely run." Twelve productive and creative years had gone by in a twinkling, but as Carl Sandburg said, "Nothing Gold can stay." Oliver Goldsmith two hundred years earlier shed some more useful philosophical wisdom on the phenomenon: "The theatre, like all other amusements, has its fashions and its prejudices, and when satiated with its excellence, mankind begin to mistake change for improvement." And change there was. The artistic home I had known for those twelve years was altered forever by the dissolution of the resident company at the nation's oldest resident theater company.

This show was actually fun for me. This was the first time I actually got to play with Ken Albers, and I got to play a real rat who was sleeping with his best friend. He was a bit of a stick who was something of a black hole emotionally.. I had always played animated, energetic fellows who bounced all over the place. I had always played nice guys, or repentant sinners like Scrooge, but never an unrepentant heel like Martin. It was quite a challenge. I had to learn to be a good liar after years of training myself to tell the truth. I had to meditate a great deal to pull it off. And it helped me later when I had to play another philanderer in Pinter's bizarre little soap opera Betrayal.

REVIEWS:

The reviews of this production were skewed by the fact that it was the swan song of the resident company. Marianne Evett of the Plain Dealer, who favored the dissolution of the company and was ecstatic about the appointment of a woman as artistic director, didn't like the show at all. Shannon Jewell of the Chronicle-Telegram, on the other side of the fence gave us this glowing notice:

'Common Pursuit' warmly wonderful

What draws people to class reunions isn't a strong fondness for years in the classroom, but a bond between those who shared the same experiences, whether joyful or somber.

What draws audiences to Simon Gray's "The Common Pursuit" isn't what the characters do, but the bond which keeps their lives intertwined for 20-plus years.

What makes this play work at the Cleveland Play House are the talents of the cast, the director, the playwright and the designers.

The play is set on six English college chums who meet in Cambridge to start their own literary magazine, to be called "The Common Pursuit."

Stuart Thorne (played by Morgan Lund) is spearheading this venture, assisted by his girlfriend Marigold (Molly McGrath Cornwell); the non literary business type, Martin Musgrove (Wayne S. Turney); the snobbish poet Humphrey Taylor (John Buck, Jr.); the obnoxious critic Nick Finchling (Thomas Q. Fulton, Jr.) and the professorial Peter Whetworth (James Richards).

STuart invites each to meet to help begin the task, then the format moves the action forward nine years, then three years, then eight years, then back to the beginning.

Such a passage of time lets us see why these uncommon types are connected, what befalls their joint efforts, then return to the start to hear them discuss what might befall them.

"The Common Pursuit" has been compared to the film "The Big Chill," in which a group gathers for a friend's funeral and a weekend of reminiscing.

What makes this more enjoyable is seeing the growth--or lack of it--in these people over time, not just as characters discussing their prior existences.

Gray's script is filled with wonderfully subtle humor and pathos, expressively depicting the changes these people endure as they each try to achieve their own dreams of greatness.

Because the actors in this cast have frequently performed together in the past, their characterizations have a past, a comraderie that is warmly apparent. There are no stars; rather we are treated to an ensemble of quality.

Guest director Kenneth L. Albers has made optimum use of his actors and his staging areas, keeping the action and the emotions succinct.