By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
"Squabbles," Marshall Karp's two-act "domestic comedy" opening Friday night at Beckwith Theatre, pits a father-in-law against a mother in a succession of situations.
Jerry Sloan is a successful writer of advertising jingles married to an equally successful lawyer, Alice, played by Jeff Gunn and Stephanie Hollenbeck-Skinner.
Living with this happy couple is the not-so-happy Abe Dreyfus (Paul Pugh, who has a daughter Stephanie in real life, too), Jerry's curmudgeon of a father-in-law.
Abe's a funny guy – to the audience, not Jerry.
The situation is exacerbated when Jerry's mother Mildred Sloan (Karen Pugh, Paul's wife and Gunn's mother in real life) loses her house in a fire and needs a place to stay.
She moves in with the young couple and into the life of a most unhappy older "housemate."
Abe and Mildred can't stand each other.
"We disliked each other instantly," Karen Pugh says of her character. "I attacked him with a cake cutter at their wedding."
This play offers up one stormy confrontation after another between the seniors – until a new baby enters the picture to produce a surprising and heart-warming finale, but first the infant needing one of the three bedrooms sets off a battle over who must leave.
There are some poignant moments, but it's a "total comedy," according to Jim Keech, who directs and, credited as "George Spelvin," also acts the part of neighbor Sol Wasserman.
Donna Courtney is "Mrs. Fisher," a "Gestapo-type" of personality reminiscent of her role as the stern German grandmother in Beckwith's "Lost in Yonkers."
Tony Meloche provides comic relief as Hector Lopez, the gardener.
"Reference to age is made quite often" in the play, Paul Pugh said.
Laugh lines explore "what people are able to do in their 60s," Karen Pugh added.
And "what their kids think they should do versus real life," adds Courtney. "Life does continue, even after children are grown."
"Squabbles," set in suburban Connecticut, plays with the notion of "how you expect old people to act," Keech explained. "Sit on the park bench, tip your hat at the ladies, then go home and eat strained vegetables and watch Lawrence Welk. It makes a statement that older people aren't dead. When (Alice) goes to the hospital, they're thrown together for four days and fall in love. Alice's response is, 'Ew! At their age?' "
Performance dates and times include: Friday and Saturday, Aug. 18 and 19, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 20, at 2 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25 and 26, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 27, at 2 p.m.
Franklin Ward, Tim Skinner, Paul Pugh and Jeff Gunn constructed scenery.
Union High School senior Jordan Eby is lighting and sound technician.