Edward Alderton Theatre

Two for the Seesaw
by William Gibson

Directed by Jean Franks

9-10 September 1977 (2 performances)

Jerry Ryan is a lawyer from Nebraska who has recently separated from his childhood sweetheart. To get away from it all he has moved to a shabby apartment in New York. He is struggling with the divorce, which has been filed but is not final, and takes long walks at night. At a party he meets Gittel Mosca, a struggling dancer who has yet to make it at 29. They instantly connect and begin to fall in love. But the relationship is hampered by their differences in background and temperament...

Cast

Jerry Ryan	Ian McBride
Gittel Mosca	Marlene Hoser

Crew
Stage Manager	Jon Finegold
Assistant Stage Managers	Joan Cooper, Terry West, Fred Unwin
Lighting	Jerry Dillon
Sound	Alan English

Review

Superb presentation by Margate group

New York is a long way from Bexleyheath: almost as far as 1954 is from today. But both distances seemed to disappear during last week's production of Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson, at the Edward Alderton Theatre, Brampton Road, Bexleyheath.

Of course, love, the theme of the play, is a universal thing, not confined to time and place. Better men than I have stated this, and often. Love is, however, equally often clumsily portrayed, leaving ordinary people far behind; perhaps nowhere more than in the early '50s American cinema, still in dreamy Hollywood days.

Two for the Seesaw was first produced in 1954 New York, yet last week it struck home with all the realism, honesty and liveliness we like to associate with contemporary drama. There are only two characters in the play, a man and a woman who are both lonely and scarred by earlier experiences in love. They have an affair but eventually part. Like all the best plays, this one asks far more questions than it provides answers.

Most remarkable was that such a long play, with two actors, little stage action and virtually nothing but the love affair as subject matter, kept the audience's attention and interest throughout. This was half due to William Gibson's keen awareness that the saddest things in life are as funny as they are tragic:

He: Did you sleep with him?
She: He may have slept with me. I didn't sleep with him.

And his excellent ear for New York — Brooklyn in this case — speech:

She: So stop walking, it's Atlantic Ocean already.

But half the praise must go to director Jean Franks and the actors Ian McBride and Marlene Hoser for the almost superhuman feat of concentration needed in this type of play. The actors' accents never once slipped, and their movements in the restricted split-stage very rarely seemed forced. What is more, they actually wore their clothes like Americans — something which, if done badly, can be annoying.

The company which presented Two for the Seesaw is called AVC and comes from Margate. It is certainly to be hoped the Edward Alderton Theatre will, to complement its own excellent productions, invite more visiting companies of AVC's calibre.

G R

Bexley Times | 15 September 1977

Comment

"This has brought back so many great memories. We also played this at the Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury. However, the two performances at the EAT were terrific and we all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly (in spite of our lighting man being stuck on the M2 on opening night!).

Sadly, Ian McBride who played Jerry, died some years ago and Marlene Hoser, who played Gittel, is now better known as Juliette Kaplan who, for some twenty odd years, has played (and is still playing) Pearl in Last of the Summer Wine!

Jean Franks (Director), September 2007

Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson

Two for the Seesaw
by William Gibson