Grumpy old men

Profile Theatre, a local theater group that chooses one playwright to profile for a season, has been on a roll lately, choosing audience-approved playwrights such as Wendy Wasserstein. And this season is no exception with the theater’s choice of Neil Simon.

It’s difficult not to like Simon, despite some dated jokes and some unsympathetic characters. The newest production of The Sunshine Boys, playing at Theatre! Theatre!, is a Simon classic. And what Profile does with the work would surely be Simon-approved.

Like a Seinfeld episode—sitcom-style jokes, dry humor, petty arguments—most characters are white, Jewish and extremely neurotic. The Sunshine Boys is a tale of a decades-old grudge playing out in a Manhattan apartment and rehearsal space for a variety show. The grudge is between two comedians who shared a vaudeville act and were the best show in town during their reign. That was until one of them decided to retire.

All of the backstory is explained by the two fractured old men as they live totally separate lives, only seeing each years later to re-enact their best skit for the last time as a tribute to American comedy. They bicker, tease and drive each other crazy enough that they end up not redoing the act for a live audience.

Despite their best laid plans going awry, the two men realize they were only good, in comedy and in life, together. There is acceptance, companionship and respect, something that is refreshing to see between a most unlikely source of modern American theater—elderly men.

Directed by Thom Bray, a Portland State professor in the English department, the performance doesn’t falter from the Simon forte of quick quips and dull action. He does well with the script, partly because of his own intuition as a skilled writer, but also because of the skill of the two lead performers; Richard Mathews plays the curmudgeon Willie Clark and Michael Berkson plays his partner, whom Clark refers to as the funniest man he’s ever met.

Bray hardly needs to direct. It is apparent that these two veterans of the stage—they probably have 80 years between them—use their synergy to compel the audience with what would otherwise be some boring exchanges.

The supporting cast, especially Jason Maniccia as Willie Clark’s agent and nephew Ben Silverman, brings respite in the first and second acts with more dialogue, and act as the plot’s catalyst to bring the comedic duo together.

The Sunshine Boys is light-hearted fare. Some of the comedy will be lost on younger generations, as it goes back to a time when talking about race relations and background wasn’t muted with political correctness. It’s a good primer to Simon’s oeuvre, but no profound insights into life, the universe and everything else are to be found. Just old-fashioned comedy with a little tenderness and mocking mixed in.