Upon walking into the James-York Playhouse for Williamsburg Players’ production of Brighton Beach Memoirs, all I could say was “wow”.  The set design, led by Bill Velardi, was amazing.  They made a whole functional second story on stage, such that they effectively had four separate rooms on stage (two upstairs, one large room downstairs, and outside downstairs).  And it was beautifully built, wall-sconces and all, and very nicely furnished.  This set provides a beautiful late 1930s setting where the entirety of Brighton Beach Memoirs takes place.

Brighton Beach Memoirs tells the story of what amounts to one very big week in a Brooklyn family’s life, who all live in one house together.  Our narrator and main character is fourteen year-old Eugene, played by Jack Zeis.  Eugene, via many asides, explains to the audience the relationships between the rest of his family – his lower-middle-class parents Jack (Sam Miller) and Kate (Elina Blaha), his older and working brother Stanley (Jake Swery), his widowed Aunt Blanche (Jennifer Lent), and Blanche’s daughters Nora (Georgia Hester) and Laurie (Erica Buzard).  While the adult characters deal with bigger issues (such as job loss, health issues, interpersonal relationships, and relatives trying to escape eastern Europe as Hitler moves in), Eugene deals with something more age-appropriate – puberty.  He gets advice on the birds and bees from Stanley, and confesses his crush on cousin Nora to the audience (which, I must say, seemed to amuse the crowd around us – mainly people over the age of 60 – more than I would have thought.  Maybe crushing on a first cousin was more accepted back in the day?).

Zeis is absolutely the star of this play.  He has an ability to humanize each conversation and draw us in, and his comedic timing when he addressed the audience directly was spot-on.  Those asides were what I found myself most looking forward to during the play.  The action moved around the stage seamlessly, as I was especially impressed with the lighting work (also by Bill Velardi) done to light up each room of the stage as the conversation shifted, and then to quickly (and perfectly on cue) switch to just a spotlight on Eugene when he began his next aside.  The only flaw I find with Zeis’s Eugene is that, despite living in Brooklyn in the 30s, he is a Yankees fan.  Did writer Neil Simon forget that the Dodgers were there?  We may never know.