A young man comes home from college, where he’s succeeded brilliantly. Tops in his class. Graduate-school scholarship. Boastful parents. But Benjamin Braddock (Max Tachis), incongruously dressed in a diving suit, won’t leave his bedroom. He can’t bring himself to go downstairs to greet the congratulatory guests who will inevitably fawn over him and ask about the future he doesn’t want to face. Plastics? Forget it.
Meanwhile, the diving suit comes off, and the seductive Mrs. Robinson (Betsy Kruse Craig), the wife of his father’s law partner, sidles into Benjamin’s bedroom and orders him to unzip her flaming red dress, revealing lacy black underwear and slinky stockings. An affair is inevitable, but all hell breaks loose when Benjamin’s parents order him to date Mrs. Robinson’s chaste daughter, Elaine (Michelle Skinner).
This is “The Graduate,” Terry Johnson’s stage adaptation of Mike Nichols’ award-winning 1967 film, which is in turn based on an obscure 1964 novel by Charles Webb. The Palo Alto Players production, the show’s first time on the Peninsula, borrows from both film and novel, adding new elements as well, according to director Jeanie K. Smith. It continues through July 2 at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre.
No red Alfa Romeo Spider zooming up and down the coast. No poolside barbecues or jilted boyfriend banging on a window overlooking a wedding ceremony.
Instead, on a spare set designed by Nikolaj Sorensen, with just nine actors, the drama lies in the delivery perhaps more comic than in the film, but nonetheless with undertones of angst.
The play is “a different animal from either the book or the film but very faithful to both,” said Smith. “The humor is there some of it is hilarious but some underlying themes come through in the stage version” that are less apparent in the film: alienation not only of young people but their parents as well.
Supporting characters hint at backstories barely touched on in the film. Mr. Braddock (Shawn Bender) disparages his ditzy wife (Raegena Raymond-Brunker), whose prissy hairdo and unflattering floral garb kudos to costume designer Kathleen Qiu play up her cluelessness. Meanwhile, Skinner as Elaine reveals comedic talents in a drunken dialogue with her mother. In addition, the cuckolded Mr. Robinson (Mark Novak) demonstrates a breadth of character missing in the film role, delivering a performance ranging from heartbroken to furious.
Those of a certain age will inevitably draw comparisons with the film, which netted an Oscar for Nichols and nominations for both Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. The Simon & Garfunkel soundtrack brings back memories of that more-innocent era. But the understated Tachis and the flamboyant Kruse Craig bring new interpretations to the roles, with gestures and expressions that often reveal more than the words themselves, particularly when words fail them.
Each, in their own way, is at loose ends. Benjamin can’t cross into adulthood. He’s clear on what he doesn’t want to be like his Southern California parents and their affluent friends, whom he calls “grotesque.” But after a short trip to discover “real people,” he returns disillusioned, finding them tolerable only when he’s drunk. As for Mrs. Robinson, alcohol and extramarital sex mask her discontent.
In 2017, some elements from “The Graduate” seem as dated as coats and ties at a barbecue. Today young people rarely marry right after college or even before and unhappy upper-middle class couples are less likely to stay together to watch their children graduate. Although people might look askance at a young man’s affair with an older married woman, they would be unlikely to take him to a psychiatrist or call him “a degenerate.” And the slapstick ending, albeit different from the film version, left this reviewer shaking her head.
But some things haven’t changed. Coming-of-age and midlife crises continue, and continue, creating aha moments for contemporary audiences.
Freelance writer Janet Silver Ghent can be emailed at ghentwriter@gmail.com.
What: “The Graduate”
Where: Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
When: Through July 2, Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. with post-performance talkback; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m.
Cost: $25-$52, with senior, military and student discounts
Info: Go to PA Players or phone 650-329-0891