Veering between laughter and tears, anger and love, the family story at the heart of Brighton Beach Memoirs was brought to the stage beautifully by a talented Trinity College School cast and crew over three evenings in the Dick & Jane LeVan Theatre. From the opening night on November 22nd until the last bows on November 24th, audiences were treated to a heartfelt and thoughtful production of Neil Simon’s tale of the daily life of a Polish-Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York in the late 1930s, and the coming-of-age of young Eugene Jerome.
Brighton Beach Memoirs tells the story of 14-year-old Eugene (Connor Demrovsky), his mother Kate (Kenna Beatty), father Jack (Aidan Reid) and older brother Stanley (Atticus Hodges), whose experiences mirror Simon’s own upbringing. When Eugene’s aunt Blanche (Iris Geale Quispe) and cousins Nora (Kennedy Adams) and Laurie (Magdalena Kuhn) come to live with his family in Brighton Beach, comedy and drama ensue. Jack and Stanley are forced to do what they can to support the growing household, frustration mounts over Laurie’s chronic illnesses and Blanche’s attempts to woo the next-door neighbour, and, worse still, Eugene has developed a crush on Nora! The family’s struggles, which provide both comedic and heart-rending moments, play out against the backdrop of a world on the brink of war as the Nazis invade the Jeromes’ homeland of Poland.
Brighton Beach Memoirs was directed by Mr. Greg MacPherson, with Mr. Landon Jeffrey as assistant director. Sarah Egan was stage manager, assisted by Cathy Mack, Laurence Chevalier and Léa Jane David Frenette. The hard-working crew included Maddie Golberg, Haoran Wu, Quinn Moran, Ryan Lu, Andrew Ren, Maddie Marcotte, Tony Wei and Madison Forester. In addition to the principal cast, Emerson Goodyer and Ewan Evenden served as understudies for the production.
Cast and crew were dedicated to bringing this tale to life with sensitivity and care, humour and pathos. Their work was supported by many people in the TCS community, including: the facilities & IT services department, the culinary services department, Jon Ebbrell, Victor Svenningson ’74, Northumberland Players, Lynne Templer, Maria Skibinski, and faculty and staff members Brent Hurley, Sally MacKay-LePage, Bill Walker, Allyn Whitehead and Renée Hillier.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this special production, and to the audiences who supported and appreciated their efforts.
