Andrew McCallum as Sostratos and Erin Lynlee Partin as The Girl in THE GROUCH. Photo © Gerry Goodstein.

The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival heads outdoors to stage Menander's only surviving play.

It is the year 317 B.C. in Athens, Greece. It is a morning in late March and about 1,000 citizens are up early. They have dressed in their best tunics and are making their way to the Theatre of Dionysus, an amphitheater placed on the south side of the Acropolis, the tallest hill in the city.

The Theatre of Dionysus has a semicircular seating space built into the slope of the hill. At the foot of the seating area is a flat, circular space called the "orchestra," where the actors will perform. Behind the orchestra, a temporary stage house has been built, from which the performers will make entrances and exits.

Sometimes the entire day may be devoted to the tragedies - the works of Sophocles, Aeschylus or Euripides are the favorites. But today is a day for comedy, a farce by Aristophanes perhaps, such as Lysistrata. And something very special this particular day - a new comedy by Menander, who has lived his entire life in Athens and will write more than 100 plays. Perhaps his new piece, The Grouch, will receive the Dionysus Festival Award. (He was given eight such in his 30 years of playwriting.)

Actually, The Grouch is Menander's only surviving work, and it is being given a rare production by the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival - at the Greek Theatre on the grounds of the College of Saint Elizabeth. (That's just up the road - Madison Avenue - about a mile or so from Drew University.)

It's a perfect site, an amphitheater carved into the side of a hill at the end of the pretty campus. Like the ancients, bring you own wine and picnic if you prefer, but other goodies are available. Cushions maybe rented for $1, and it's a good idea, even though the entire performance runs only 75 minutes.

The Festival has had "other stage" shows in past years on and off. This one seems particularly apt, given the theme of "Grand Magic" for this, the festival's 40th season. You would do well to bring your wildest sense of humor, because the Festival company, directed by Jason King Jones, includes some of its best clowns.

Andrew McCallum (back for his third season) plays our saucy hero, Sostratos, determined to win the fair girl in spite of a venal pater. Joe Discher (12th season) plays the god Pan, complete with flute, violin and horns.

A big Festival favorite, James Michael Reilly, also in his 12th season, plays Sikon, the chef, and he comes with his own live lamb (Matthew Sigl) and baskets of vital victuals for the feast. The newcomers of note: Joseph Costa in the title role with a sneer big enough to include most of North Jersey. And Robert Lanchester, well known for his 11 years at McCarter, including years as Scrooge and Uncle Vanya.

Be prepared for surprises: half-naked, gloriously lithe nymphs may land in your lap, uttering sweet coos. Expect the action to stop while the company "pay homage to the gods of the air" if a plane on its route from takeoff in Newark wanders overhead. Don't expect anyone in the cast to give the finger - they give the entire arm. And, most of all, expect director Jones and his crew to give you more than an hour of wonderful laughs. Just the antidote for a steamy evening.

The Grouch continues at the Greek Theatre, the College of Saint Elizabeth, 2 Convent Road, Morristown, through Aug. 11. Performances: Tues.-Fri. 7:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 4, 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25; $15 under age 13. For information, call (973) 408-5600. On the Web: www.njshakespeare.org

ŠPacket Online 2002

"Perfectly placed in the festival's summer setting. On a balmy night, the place is the thing."

The Grouch Should Cheer up Audiences
By William Westhoven, Daily Record, August 2, 2002

Praise the gods! If the crowd's reaction to the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival's performance of "The Grouch" is any indication, Greek Theatre could be the next retro craze. Call it "That Fourth Century B.C. Show," if you will, with more than a few nods, nudges and winks to the present.

At its heart, however, this absolutely delightful production pays numerous tributes to the traditions of Greek Theatre's New Comedy era, starting with the perfect venue: the open-air Greek Theatre amphitheatre on the campus of the College of St. Elizabeth, just down the road from the festival's resident campus at Drew University.

Patrons were encouraged to picnic before the show, and picnic they did on the spacious lawns surrounding the site. Some people even brought wine, cheese and snacks into the theater itself and, to their surprise, ended up sharing them with cast members during the performance.

This interaction played a large role in the casual, whimsical nature of the evening. Many characters made their entrance down the stone stairways of the theater to the lawn in front of the stage, where some patrons sat on blankets, while other patrons lounged in the spacious, grassy bleachers. Other characters entered from behind shrubs adjacent to the stage. Most of the time, playful nymphs mingled with the audience, teasing and playing with them, while the ubiquitous god Pan (played by frequent NJSF actor-director Joe Discher) hit up one couple for some wine. At one point, the Grouch (Joseph Costa) battled fiercely with one young man over a bag of Doritos (he lost, which did not improve his mood any).

As for the frequent buzz of planes and helicopters taking off from nearby Morristown airport, even this potentially significant annoyance was worked into the production, as the ancient characters would stop, drop to their knees and praise the appearance of "the gods." Saturday night, these interludes were so frequent, at one point a character pulled out a newspaper to combat the monotony. The audience actually howled at this, as they did during several other moments of improvisational inspiration.

All of these successful decisions, most of which can be safely credited to director Jason King Jones, contribute mightily to an evening of comfortable hilarity under a sky that threatened to rain, but never did. The story itself, about a farmer whose hostile, misanthropic nature alienates him from his fellow man and threatens the future happiness of his daughter, is rather pedestrian. It may have been fresh in 315 B.C., but today it seems trite. Of course, "Austin Powers" isn't exactly known for its timeless plot and characters, either. It's just a good time. So is "The Grouch," and knowing that it is more than 2,000 years old makes it seem that much more meaningful.

Meaning, however, takes a back seat to merriment, which is shared by cast and audience alike. It's been a long time since I've seen actors have this much fun, indulging in slapstick, music, dance and general silliness. Many lines of the play meandered from playwright Menander's text, updated to include modern references such as go-go girls, cell phones and pagers.

While Costa is appropriately gruff as the Grouch, Knemon, this is truly an ensemble cast, featuring wonderfully hammy turns by Corinne Edgerly as Knemon's weary slave and NJSF favorite James Michael Reilly as Sikon, the Cook. Discher not only shows off some deft comic timing as Pan, but demonstrates a lovely singing voice as well as his ability to play the fiddle and, appropriately, the panpipe.

Also worthy of mention are the nymphs, played by Amanda Duffy, Katrina Toshiko, Miriam Lamey and Maris Smith, whose playful nature and nimble, comic choreography keep spirits high even when the plot begins to slow down.

I won't reveal too much and ruin the surprises, but take this strong piece of advice: If you've been waiting for the right time to introduce your children to classic theater, that time is now. With or without children, however, those who find their way to "The Grouch" are guaranteed to enjoy an evening of laughter and joy they won't soon forget. Picnic optional.

There's no Panning Pan, or The Grouch
By Peter Filichia, The Star-Ledger, August 02, 2002

For a play that's 2,319 years old, "The Grouch" is pretty funny.

The New Jersey Shakespeare Festival has taken its act up the road to Morris Township, to the campus of the College of St. Elizabeth. Fittingly enough, in a Greek outdoor amphitheater, the company stages the comedy by the ancient Greek Menander (c. 343 B.C.-292 B.C.). He's the great-granddaddy of such Roman playwrights as Plautus, whose works inspired "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum."

The roots of that musical are here in "The Grouch," where naive boy meets naive girl, and it's love at first sight. The problem, though, is that her father Knemon is "a human void of humanity," according to Pan, the anthropomorphic emcee. The father himself admits, "I'm testy when crossed" -- and proves it by swinging an ax at those who come near his door. He's not above spitting at them, either, or yanking the flower from the pot given to his daughter by a suitor.

As another playwright whom Menander influenced once said, "The course of true love never did run smooth," and that's part of the frenetic fun. In Jason King Jones' commendable production, there are at least three Three Stooges jokes, all deftly rendered by the festival's finest clown, James Michael Reilly. He plays a cook who's pursuing a sheep -- which at first seems to be a real animal because Matthew Sigl bleats so effectively.

The unmiked actors work hard to enunciate so each word can be heard, thus slowing down the farcical pace, but there are still many pleasures.

A quartet of scantily clad nymphs romps around in musical interludes that don't advance the action (that wouldn't happen for another 2,260 years, when "Oklahoma!" opened), but the free-spirited lovelies literally tickle Pan and figuratively tickle audience members by mingling with them and addressing them in Greek. (Well, it was Greek to me.)

Though Pan advises, "Let your imagination transform this place," the cast and crew do it for theater-goers. Joseph Costa has a gravel-tinged voice to suit his hard-hearted personality as the curmudgeonly Knemon. Andrew McCallum is droll as the open-faced hero, and Peter Husovsky is deft as his servant, who's substantially smarter than his master. Erin Lynlee Partin is adorably innocent as his love, while Joe Discher's Pan deserves raves.

Menander's play meanders near the end, even though the whole enterprise is wrapped up in 75 minutes. But that's still enough time for a message ("The gods always teach the best lessons through bitter experience.") or two ("With hard work and delicate care, you can win anything.").

Maybe the grouch in this play doesn't want anyone near him, but audiences are going to want to be near "The Grouch."