Donelly Gives Masterful Performance in Wilbury’s ‘The Father: A Tragic Farce’

Theatre Review by DON FOWLER
Posted 1/29/25

Veteran actor Richard Donelly gives a masterful performance as Andre, the aging father who is facing the challenges of Alzheimer’s in French author Florian Zeller’s “The Father: A …

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Donelly Gives Masterful Performance in Wilbury’s ‘The Father: A Tragic Farce’

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Veteran actor Richard Donelly gives a masterful performance as Andre, the aging father who is facing the challenges of Alzheimer’s in French author Florian Zeller’s “The Father: A Tragic Farce.”

Director Josh Short has wisely done away with accents, put the one-act, 90-minute play up close and personal, and corroborated with Donelly (Read last week’s interview by Ida Zecco) with Donelly).

Monica Shinn’s clever, utilitarian set brings the actors close to their audience, allowing them to see and feel reactions to Andre’s complex character.

The theme of the play is becoming a common one: The effects of the terribly cruel disease on a person and those who love him/her.

“The Father” goes deeper. It explores not only how a person changes, but also how the disease affects memory, reality and character.

Donelly is brilliant at showing us different moods, reactions and fazes.

At times he is completely lucid. At times he makes us wonder if he is playing with those around him.

“The Father” is a play about the relationship between a father and his daughter (splendidly played by Jeanine Kane) and a few others in his life.

Andre resents her at times, as she tries to do what is best for him and for her. He also can be manipulative.

He forgets where he is, who is who, where he left his watch, and what happened to his other daughter.

He reacts to every caregiver his daughter brings home until a pretty young lady is hired.

When she asks what his profession was, he replies, “tap dancer” and gives a demonstration.

“But Dad, you were an engineer,” his daughter says, not allowing him his moment of either forgetting or playing.

Good performances from Jeff Ararat, Tanya Anderson Martin, and Gabrielle McCauley as people who pop in and out of his memory and Marvin Novogrodski as Anne’s husband who suggested where Andre’s final years should be spent.

It was good to see Novogrodski back on stage. The RI actor was a familiar face in children’s entertainment for years and has returned home from Massachusetts. I was impressed with how he handled an important supporting role.

“The Father” is at Wilbury Theatre Group through February 9.Go online at thewilburygroup.org. for tickets.

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