Finest flavours linger in Kenilworth theatre production

THE Talisman’s On Golden Pond is a banquet for the soul.

As Norman Thayer Junior (John Fenner) and his wife Ethel (Ann Richards) sail into their golden years, his increasing forgetfulness and the distance between them and their only child Chelsea (Michelle Williams) provides the meat of this wonderfully funny and subtle drama.

They spend each summer at their primitive but charming Dacha on ‘Golden Pond’ in Maine where he fishes, reads and hides his warm tenderness behind a wall of witticisms and wisecracks, polished by years as Professor of English at Pennsylvania University; increasingly consumed by ideas of death. She dreams, watches the bugs and the loons, makes cookies, gardens, picks fruit, and jollies him along.

After eight years of silence, Chelsea visits with her new beau, dentist Bill Ray (Ross Woodward) and his son Billy (Elliot Relton Williams) – troubled, 14, and just as demanding as Norman in his way – but they hit it off and his presence in the house breathes life and new purpose into Norman. They fish, talk, and learn so much from each other.

But it’s the interplay of Norman and Ethel that single this out as a complete hit – their relationship is charming and an object lesson in how to grow old – with the emphasis on the ‘grow’.

Debut direction from David Draper draws out the irony and humour – not forgetting the wonderful set which drew applause of its own. Thank you, Talisman - the flavours lingered on the tongue like the finest meal.

Jane Howard

Caption:

John Fenner as Norman and Ann Richards as Ethel in the Talisman Theatre’s production of On Golden Pond. Picture submitted.