I Never Sang For My Father

Reviewed by Joseph Klink

Theater That Matters – Two Roads Theater

Through October 23

RECOMMENDED

We’re deep into 2022. It is redundant to say we’ve all learned something about ourselves and how we value our time. In the air, in abundance, there exists this terrible combination of “if only we could slow down for a moment” and ”but I must take care of this first”!  Life’s challenges often seem random or thankless; we already do so much because we ‘ought to’, and looking inward, where is the energy supposed to come from? What can we do when we’re torn between two rights, and the only thing going wrong seems to be you?

I Never Sang For My Father takes on these questions and more in a painfully truthful, relatable drama. Written by Robert Anderson, it is a story of when responsibility to family meets disappointment and heartbreak. Gene (played by Shayne Anderson) is the middle-aged, dutiful son of Tom and Margaret Garrison (Dana Kelly Jr. and Becky Bonar). They are parents who will soon require full responsibility for their care. Gene’s sister, Alice (Mary Carrig), has been excommunicated by their father, much to their mother’s dismay, and she is the only one willing to tell Gene that he must consider himself when things really begin to change. Their relationships with their parents can be felt everywhere. We aren’t alone, humans, in a common sense of obligation, in wanting to take care of our elders and loved ones as a way to say thanks. We are, however, unique in regarding quite how much toil and pain, any extreme emotion, that the very idea of their aging can cause us. That said, where do we draw the line when caring for someone who has caused hurt or trauma?

The actors deliver a powerful performance. It is all-too-real, yet leaves you feeling grounded and not alone. The actors portraying the Garrison family are strongly supported by Cheyann Dillon and Paul Buxton, both dynamic actors who play multiple characters. The director, Doug Kaback’s vision is clear, and rather than cast judgment on the characters, wherein it would be easy to do so, we are given a plain look at them. The play was written 50 years ago, but the ideas are somehow made more intense by the world we live in today. The realities of this story can be hard to bear, just as in life, but they exist and they are worth paying attention to, if only for oneself. Don’t miss it.