It’s a story about family, relationships and love – perhaps a dysfunctional family that many can relate to. It was a Broadway play first in 1979 but most probably recall it as a film in 1981 – starring Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn and Jane Fonda. It was Henry Fonda’s last role (an Oscar winner) and the only time he appeared on screen with his daughter Jane. Now On Golden Pond comes to the Mill Mountain Theatre Trinkle main stage from Sept 30 through October 11.
Peter Thomasson has the role of Norman Thayer Jr. (Henry Fonda’s part in the movie), with Lourelene Snedeker (call her La in real life) as his wife Ethel Thayer. Ginger Poole is daughter Chelsea Thayer Wayne – their divorced, middle aged daughter they haven’t seen in years. Chelsea never had the grandchild her aging parents wanted, but when she and her fiancé leave his son with them while they head off to Europe, Norman and teenager Billy develop the relationship, after a cautious start, that the elderly couple longed for.
Chelsea returns to find that Norman and Billy have the rapport she always wanted. Mill Mountain’s producing artistic director Ginger Poole, a fine actor herself, handles the role of Chelsea.
Snedeker splits her time between South Carolina and Florida now; she has worked with notables like Leslie Uggams, Loretta Swit and Len Cariou (a Broadway staple) in the past. “I watch their every performance and every nuance,” says Snedeker, who understudied Uggams on a recent tour of Mame. Cariou, meanwhile, “has an opinion about everything.”
As for On Golden Pond, Snedeker says, “You should see your own family in all of this – how people deal with different situations.” She “adores” the comedy in Pond as they deal with different situations – but there’s no doubt that “they love each other,” as the characters sort through the issues. Snedeker went back recently to look at the movie after not having seen it in many years – noting that the film and this play are very different; the movie adaptation, “took a different curve,” so play watchers should not expect a replica of the Fonda-Hepburn version when they come to Mill Mountain Theatre. “I never copy anyone else,” she adds about her performances, “I am my own person.”
Poole, Snedeker and Thomasson have known each other for about 20 years, dating back to collaborations at the Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina. That provides some reassurance, says Thomasson, who has appeared at Mill Mountain in the past in Art and A Man for All Seasons (Snedeker is a first timer here.) “An immediate comfort zone there,” says Thomasson.
In the play, Norman is having a “difficult time” with the aging process and has a major conflict with his daughter Chelsea. “They haven’t seen each other in eight years,” Thomasson notes. The young boy, left with the elder Thayers for the summer, “rejuvenates” Norman, says Thomasson, who hopes audiences leave feeling there has been “a happy [and] healthy resolve. We see Norman in quite a different place at the end of the play.” Thomasson has now played the role of Norman Thayer in three productions of On Golden Pond. “I like plays that have redemption aspects to them,” says Thomasson.
Chelsea Thayer is a “busy woman” says Poole; her character lives across the country from her parents and is emerging from personal struggle when she visits them in Maine. Chelsea wants “the happy ending. I want everybody to be friends.” Thomasson and Snedeker are “stars” to Poole (also the producing artistic director at Mill Mountain), who says she learned from their work ethic and how they would “squeeze every ounce out of a scene. These two are masters of their craft.” Poole wants play patrons to see that family is often about “hard work and perseverance – not everything is a piece of cake.”
Mill Mountain Theatre has also announced a partnership with several area organizations and will use post-play public “talk backs” to discuss issues related to the changing roles of family in contemporary society – and how human affection – such as portrayed in On Gold Pond – can have a positive impact. Those talk backs take place on September 30 – actually pre-show at the Harrison Museum – also located at Center in the Square, and post-show at the theatre on October 3 and 9. (see millmountain.org for information and tickets or visit the Center box office.)
By Gene Marrano
