A Hive of WASPS

WOODY ALLEN USED TO JOKE, when death seemed imminent, his life passed before his eyes, "I saw myself going fishin' down at the fishin' hole, fryin' up a mess o' catfish, and goin' down to the general store to buy a piece of Gingham for Emmy Lou. But then I realized this was not my life, here I was about to die and the wrong life was passing before my eyes."

The convoluted script of Scenes From American Life, gives the feeling that the wrong life is being staged. Despite the confusing script, quite a few scenes are very entertaining and the acting in sometimes excellent. The American life that the play presents is the life of the upper-class WASP, specifically those in Buffalo.

A series of short takes from life among Buffalo's blue-blooded are strung together in what seems an almost random order. The play is certainly not bound by any timeline as it jumps from World War II to 1990 to the 1960's without so much as a CBS Newsbreak.

Indeed there is no plot to this play although two attempts at a story try to struggle to the audience's attention. The first is the life of the first character we are introduced to. Snoozer; the play's first scene is his birth. The second is militant class struggle and the rise of fascism which catches these poor blue bloods in the middle.

The play is its best when it simply exposes the foibles, ironies, and hypocrisy of this breed of American The first act sticks much more closely to this loose structure than the second act. This latter part of the play becomes very confusing as it ignores timelines and allows class struggle to poke its nose, however discreet and upturned, out. Fortunately the second act is very short and we only see the left nostril.

The first act provides some excellent entertainment as we laugh at WASPs stung by their own hypocrisy and caught in the next of tradition. The actors are adept at quickly setting up their character moods, which is especially important in these short scenes.

Their marriages break, they drink too much, the parents and kids don't communicate, and the WASP next starts coming apart. As the preps watch a tennis match, one defines tennis language, "Love means nothing."

Two actors, Tim Smith and Ron Schachter, and one actress, Sarah Jane Cohen, deserve recognition for the ease with which they slipped from one characterization into another. These three actors show the ability to portray a multitude of characters within the WASP live.

Smith makes an excellent child, but his portrayals of a barber and limousine driver also capture their expressions extremely well. His control of facial expressions provided a welcome relief to what seemed awkward pauses among other actors when they were not an active part of the scene. At times the acting can become melodramatic. Even Smith as a barber falls prey to this when he laments the loss of idealism of one of his customers.

Director Sarah Szanton must be praised for her work. The many scene changes run smoothly. The WASPs in this play indeed buzz about quickly, but Stanton's adept direction ensures that they eventually find their way to their nest, bringing many of us home with them too.