Sit tight for ‘Dr Cook’s’ dilly of a climax
By William Westhoven, Daily Record
MORRIS TWP. — "Dr. Cook’s Garden," which opened May 16 at The
Bickford Theatre, transplants its audience to bucolic Greenfield, Vt., by all
accounts the happiest and healthiest town in America. It’s the kind of town
where everybody knows your name, the constable spends most of his time gardening
and the only doctor in town is always up for a house call.
The residents, churning their neighborly conversation in thick New England
accents, are excited about their new elementary school and the return of a
favored son, young doctor Jim Tennyson. The town takes great pride in its
largest employer, which manufactures asbestos that is being used in the space
program.
But for those waiting for the promised thriller portion of the evening to
begin, this revelation is an amusing, but coincidental red herring. Written and
set in the late ’60s, when asbestos was a miracle of modern science, this
uneven but ultimately satisfying Ira Levin drama takes its sweet time before
getting down to business.
It’s the kind of town where people seem to live to a ripe old age unless,
its worth pointing out, they are severely disabled or just plain mean. "God
watches over us," observes Dr. Cook’s helper, Dora (Bunny Cockrille).
"Even when he takes someone, there is a reason." OK, now we’re
getting somewhere.
At least some of Greenfield’s good fortune is credited to kindly old Dr.
Cook, who has delivered and tended to the local folks for more than 30 years. He
also fusses over his prized garden, which was photographed for a House and
Garden cover and where you will never find a weed, leaf or twig out of place.
Now, that’s a coincidence worth looking into, and when young Dr. Jimmy starts
poking around his mentor’s files, the game’s afoot.
Part of the problem, though, with "Dr. Cook’s Garden" is how the
plot forces Jim to make some unfathomable decisions to keep it moving when it
might be more interesting to explore the dilemma he finds himself in. When he
discovers the evil deeds of his personal and professional role model, does he
have a duty to reveal the truth or protect the father figure who made him the
upstanding citizen he is today?
His choices are hard to swallow, but like the latest episode of "Star
Wars," your patience is paid back with dividends in the end as director
Eric Hafen, five quality actors and even the script deliver a dilly of a climax.
Duncan M. Rogers, who recently captivated audiences with his intense
performance in the Women’s Theatre Company production of "Still
Life" in Madison, does yeoman work as Jim, somehow making his character
believable despite behavior that regresses from naïve to just plain foolish.
Cockrille, Nora Hummel (as Dr. Cook’s nurse) and Greg Bazaz (as the
constable Elias Hart) lend sturdy support, but J.C. Hoyt (fresh off a gig as the
Old Actor in the final nine months of the off-Broadway classic "The
Fantasticks") makes the most of his showcase role as Dr. Cook and steals
the show. With his graying hair, busy eyebrows and folksy wit, he effortlessly
glides back and forth between Dr. Welby and Dr. Kevorkian. At his best, he
recites Cook’s rationale for his crimes with chilling effectiveness,
reminiscent of how oratory skill and propaganda even made Hitler look benevolent
to some until his true colors were revealed.
"Dr. Cook’s Garden" will never be mistaken for a classic, but if
you can get through the first act (and tolerate two intermissions in a play that
runs under two hours, another flaw you can pin on the author), the rewards are
many. Mystery, suspense, action, twists and turns, gripping drama and
well-rationed comic relief in hues from dark to light await those who have yet
to discover the quality work being done by this small, but clearly professional
troupe.
"Dr.
Cook" remains current,
Finds
heartbeat in headlines
Wednesday
May 22, 2002
LIZ
KEILL
The
Independent Press
"Dr.
Cook's Garden" by Ira Levin, although written in 1969, seems even more relevant
today.
The
playwright, in fact, may have foreseen the "God like" decisions
facing medicine and science: the ability to prolong life, to clone cells, to
tackle such ethical issues as euthanasia.
We're
faced with that terrible choice: life or death.....and what price are we
willing to pay.
The
Bickford Theater's artistic director, Eric Hafen, noted as much in his
comments in the play's program.
Visit a
sleepy village in Vermont and Dr. Leonard Cook will solve the problem for you.
When
his protégé, Jim Tennyson, returns for a visit, he's greeted with affection
by the locals and told what a perfect place it is. It seems, mysteriously,
that the trouble makers and the impaired die, while the strong and good
survive. Tennyson begins to unravel the way a number of citizens have been
"removed".
Levin's
play has shades of "Arsenic and Old Lace" with the aging doctor
failing to see that his care giving has turned into a powerful tool.
"There's an element of pleasure in killing", he later reveals... and
ultimately adds, "Do you see how it begins?"
It
takes strong actors to keep the banter going, the tension building. Duncan M.
Rogers projects his natural, effortless charm as Jim. Bickford audiences have
been treated to his performance before, in " First Night". He
appeared in "Still Life" with the Women's Theater Company in
Madison.
J.C.
Hoyt as Dr. Cook brings a canny, rumpled air to the good doctor. He's so
likable that you really want to believe he cares more about saving lives than
taking them Hoyt appeared as the old actor during the final nine months of
"The Fantasticks" at the Sullivan Street Playhouse, along with a
broad range of experience, including many roles at the New Jersey Shakespeare
Festival Theater with former artistic director Paul Barry.
Other
highlights are Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" and Doolittle in
"Pygmalion"
The
Play has three acts and, while talky at times, generally keeps moving with
enough psychological elements to keep it riveting.
The
plot isn't as tightly constructed as it could be and, when Tennyson figures
out what Cook has been doing during the last 30 years, you'd think he'd make a
greater effort to protect himself.
Nora
Hummel as Bea Schmidt, Bernice E. Cockrille as Dora Ludlow, and Greg Bazaz as
Elias Hart remind us we're in the heart of New England with their down-home
mannerisms and accents.
"Dr.
Cook's Garden" failed to make an impact on Broadway when it opened in
1969, despite the talents of Burl Ives and George C. Scott.
It
isn't as clever as Levin's "Deathtrap" nor as eerie as
"Rosemary's Baby".
Levin's
novel-turned-movie, with Mia Farrow, has been credited (or reviled) as making
the occult a popular exploration. Levin's take on the world reaches beyond
technology.
In a
1999 interview, he was asked if he had premonitions about the millennium. He
said he foresaw "a lot of extreme behaviors and outbreaks of
violence".
"Dr.
Cook's Garden has enough disturbing moments, enough twists and turns to make
for an entertaining evening.
Medical
Melodrama
Tuesday
May 21, 2002
BY
PETER FILICHIA
Star
Ledger Staff
When
Ira Levin wrote "Dr. Cook's Garden" in 1967, he unapologetically
labeled it "a new melodrama", and not "a new play", as
most dramatists do. Levin boldly admitted what he was doing.
That
took courage, for melodrama-- which usually contains events so lurid that they're
accompanied by ominous notes from a pipe organ-- was woefully out-of-fashion
when Levin conceived his play. Now, 35 years later at the Bickford Theater in
Morris Township, "Dr. Cook's Garden" sees way over the top.
"Dr.
Cook's Garden" is for those who like their light summer entertainment a
few weeks early. Friday's opening-night audience often laughed in places where
neither Levin nor the actors would expect that reaction. But the laughs were
affectionate, as if the crowd wasn't necessarily buying what was going on, but
having a great time watching, anyway.
The
lurid plot involves Jim Tennyson, a new physician who is visiting the small
Vermont town where he grew up. His first stop is Dr. Cook's office, for
without the good doctor's encouragement, Jim wouldn't have pursued medicine. Lord
knows Jim needed this surrogate dad; his real father abused both Jim and his
mother. Luckily, he died young.
But
while Jim is catching up with D. Cook's nosy nurse Bea, housekeeper Dora and
gardener Elias, he learns that t disproportionate number of townsfolk have
also died young. Some were developmentally disabled. Some weren't very nice.
Could it be, Jim wonders, that his beloved Dr. Cook is pruning the town of
people he doesn't like?
The
question becomes whether or not doctors have the right to play God, and both
characters are persuasive in their arguments. Thank director Eric Hafen and
the two actors he's cast. Duncan M. Rogers continues to be one of the state's
most impressive young performers, and he portrays Jim as a hero-worshipper who
is devastated when Dr. Cook doesn't live up to his expectations. As the elder
M.D., J.C. Hoyt adopts a Vermont accent that almost becomes excessive, but
he's a strong foil for his accuser. But once events become sensational, then
ludicrous, there's nothing much they can do to make them believable.
Nora
Hummel depicts the imperious Bea with a power-behind-the-throne attitude
(though one has to wonder why such a sharp busybody hasn't long ago figured
out what Dr. Cook's been up to), and Greg Bazaz effectively plays the
good-natured gardener. Bernice E. Cockrille, as Dora, is winning in her honest
and unmannered delivery of a passage in which she tells of her gratefulness
for living in such an idyllic town.
What's
most interesting about "Dr. Cook's Garden" is that it has the
ingredients of two far more successful works that Levin would eventually
write. Five years later came "The Stepford Wives", which also deals
a supposedly idealized community (at least from the men's point of view).
Another five years later came "Deathtrap", another five person,
one-set play in which two men who once admired each other experience a change
of heart. Had Levin not felt his way with this melodrama, those two works
wouldn't have turned out as well.
Cultivated 'Garden' ready to bloom
Friday, May 17, 2002
BY PETER FILICHIA
Star-Ledger Staff
Ever hear of a play called "Dr. Cook's Garden"?
Not very many people have, but that isn't stopping Eric Hafen, artistic
director of the Bickford Theatre, from opening it on Saturday.
Morris Township audiences will see the story of Jim Tennyson (Duncan Rogers)
who became a doctor partly because he so admired Dr. Leonard Cook (J.C. Hoyt).
Now, though, Jim has reason to believe that the doctor isn't as avuncular as he
has assumed.
While the Bickford usually revives hits -- "Same Time, Next Year,"
"Sylvia," "Morning's at Seven" -- here is a play that ran
all of eight performances on Broadway in 1967.
Back then, Broadway observers were shocked by its quick failure, for some
potent names were attached to "Dr. Cook's Garden." Former Oscar-winner
Burl Ives. Future Oscar-winner George C. Scott. The producer was Arnold Saint-Subber,
whose first offering was "Kiss Me, Kate," and whose previous three
productions were Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd
Couple," and "The Star-Spangled Girl."
Best of all, "Dr. Cook's Garden" was written by Ira Levin, who
wrote one of 1966's most-talked-about books: "Rosemary's Baby," in
which a wife, betrayed by her husband, unwittingly gives birth to the Devil's
child. Recalls Levin from his New York apartment, "I have often been
credited -- and blamed -- for having sparked the current revival of interest in
occultism."
Granted, many novel writers haven't been able to write a hit play, but Levin
had already conquered Broadway with "No Time for Sergeants," one of
the longest-running plays of the late '50s, and had a modest success with
"Critic's Choice" in the early '60s. Both became well-received films
-- but each was a comedy, and "Dr. Cook's Garden" would be, Levin
unapologetically states, a melodrama. (According to the New Penguin Dictionary
of the Theatre, that's "a form of drama in which the emphasis is placed
upon sensational plot rather than on characterization or intellectual
content.")
"Some people," he says, "feel melodrama is long out of style,
but I've always found it perfectly respectable." Levin created a plot where
Jim wonders if Dr. Cook, who won't abide having any less-than-perfect flower in
his garden, is purposely killing anyone who's less than perfect in
"his" idyllic Vermont town.
Warner Brothers made the rare move of buying the property before the play
even opened. James Stewart was reportedly interested in portraying Dr. Cook.
On stage, Dr. Cook would be played by Burl Ives. George C. Scott directed.
"Our first mistake, though is that Saint-Subber wanted Ives in the
role," Levin says. "We did not. I had Frederick March in mind when I
wrote it, because he could play sinister, and Ives, we worried, would come
across as folksy and jolly. But Saint-Subber was the money man, so we went along
with it. We should have been stronger."
Though Scott and Ives did not work well together, Saint-Subber refused to
fire the actor -- so Scott quit. Levin took over the direction, but couldn't
connect any better with Ives. The production opened to unanimously unfavorable
reviews, and the Warner Brothers film became a 1970 TV-movie, with Bing Crosby
in the last role he would ever do. Levin opted not to write the screenplay.
The Foothills Theatre in Worcester, Mass., produced the play in 1980. Eric
Hafen starred as Dr. Jim Tennyson.
"It went over well, and I've never forgotten it," says Hafen from
his Bickford Theatre office. "Now that we're in an age of cryogenics and
stem cell research, I think it's an ideal time to do a play about a doctor who
wants everyone in his town to be absolutely perfect."
Levin went on to write books -- "The Stepford Wives," "The
Boys from Brazil." He didn't quite abandon the stage, and in 1978 came up
with "Deathtrap," the longest-running Broadway nonmusical of the last
25 years.
The Bickford resurrects Ira Levin thriller
By Debra Scacciaferro, Daily Record
MORRIS TWP. — Playwright and novelist Ira Levin, who wrote the
longest-running Broadway thriller, "Deathtrap," has spent most of his
career writing about the fine line between morality and immorality, and the
question of what price we’re willing to pay to keep our lives safe and serene.
From "The Boys From Brazil,"in which a Nazi doctor justifies his
sins with thoughts of a pure Germany, to "Rosemary’s Baby," in which
a satanic cult uses an innocent woman to give birth to a demon, to "The
Stepford Wives," in which men replace their quarrelsome wives with
complacent robots, the question almost always comes down to one: Is there a
situation when the end justifies the means?
That’s the premise of "Dr. Cook’s Garden," one of Levin’s
lesser known thrillers.
It continues through June 9 at The Bickford Theatre in The Morris Museum.
Performances run Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
The play stars J.C. Hoyt as Dr. Cook, an aging country doctor who has taken
it upon himself to make sure that his adopted Vermont village stays as serene
and tranquil and healthy as when he first arrived there some 30 years ago.
(Centenary Stage fans will remember Hoyt’s memorable roles in the spooky
"The Woman in Black" and as the Dickensian servant in "Inventing
Montana." Hoyt also was a popular actor in the New Jersey Shakespeare
Festival under former artistic director Paul Barry, and just finished the last
nine months of "The Fantasticks" in New York as The Old Actor.)
Duncan M. Rogers returns to The Bickford as Dr. Jim Tennyson, who returns
from his residency in a Chicago emergency room to finally piece together the
dark secret of his hometown. It’s a secret that pits him against his old
mentor Dr. Cook in a moral struggle of wills revolving around a doctor’s most
sacred dictum: "First, do no harm."
(Rogers played the sweet video manager in "First Night" and the
confused husband in The Women’s Theatre Company’s production of "A
Still Life" at The Bickford.)
"He’s a very well intentioned young man," Rogers said during a
break in rehearsal. "He comes home to find his old mentor and hero doing
the unbelievable. … And this is tremendously troubling for Jim. He has to
separate himself from that little boy who loved this man, and make decisions
based as a colleague. The moral struggle is huge for him, right down to the last
moment when he finds he has the power of life and death in his hands."
The cast also features Nora Hummel of Glen Ridge as the doctor’s long-time
nurse, Bea Schmidt; Bunny Cockrille of North Plainfield as Dora, the doctor’s
housekeeper; and Greg Bazaz of Harrington Park as the doctor’s gardener, Elias
Hart, who, like most of the town, never questions the actions of the beloved Dr.
Cook.
Director Eric Hafen, The Bickford’s artistic director, had played the part
of Jim Tennyson many years ago at the Worcester Foothills Theatre in
Massachusetts.
"I’ve been sitting on this play ever since," Hafen said. "It
just never seemed the right time to do it."
But last year, he changed his mind. While "Dr. Cook’s Garden" is
not a high-tech science fiction play, it goes to the heart of the question of
whether science should be used to shape a perfect society.
"Suddenly, I thought it was very contemporary," Hafen said.
"Here we are at a time when science is enabling us to perfect our lives.
Cloning, stem cell research. The very idea of using DNA to create a gene that
then can be used to make a liver or a body part to help someone who is ill. To
eradicate Parkinson’s disease or Down syndrome. And the death penalty syndrome
poses all kinds of questions."
Hafen called Levin’s agent, hoping to interest the playwright, now in his
70s, in updating the play to reflect those new scientific changes and dilemmas.
But the author declined.
"Dr. Cook’s Garden," starring Burl Ives as Dr. Cook, closed
quickly on Broadway in 1967. The story goes that director George C. Scott was so
frustrated trying to get Ives to take direction that he quit, leaving Levin to
step in as an untested and untried director. It was made into a TV movie,
starring Bing Crosby in his last role. But Hafen could find no copy of it.
Talking to the cast about the play, it was clear that "Dr. Cook’s
Garden" has many layers of secrets and viewpoints built into it for a
complex, rich dramatic stew.
"The play shows two sides of what it takes to make and keep
utopia," said T.J. Glenn, who is staging the raucous fight scene. "I
doubt there’s anyone in the audience who won’t have a heated debate on it
afterwards. It makes you rethink things."
Bazaz, as the gardener and constable, said the garden metaphor extends to Dr.
Cook’s care of the town. "There’s not a weed or dead branch that the
doctor doesn’t notice that isn’t put right," his character is fond of
saying.
But Hummel has a different view. "Dr. Cook knows he’s doing wrong.
Absolutely. The question is now, what’s he going to do when he’s found out?
Save his own skin?"
Hoyt, who plays Dr. Cook, said it will be fun to do something that an
audience can come to without preconceived notions. And although he has lived in
New York and now Morristown for many years, he can identify with Dr. Cook’s
love of bucolic surroundings.
"Having grown up in Minnesota, I like having birds and trees and small
town surroundings," he said.
Having studied with such theater giants as Shakespearean director Tyrone
Guthrie and Harold Clurman, founder of The Group Theatre with Lee Strasburg,
Hoyt approaches "Dr. Cook’s Garden" as he would a famous work of
Henrik Ibsen or William Shakespeare, probing for the complexities of dark and
light within the play.
"Guthrie always said, if you’re going to direct a play, you ought to
read the play again and again and again and again, and read it aloud, to your
cat if you’ve got one, and get the music of the play into your blood,"
Hoyt said.
"In many ways, I approach Dr. Cook as I would any villain. I play him as
a nice guy. He certainly doesn’t think of himself as a bad guy."
He likens Dr. Cook to Halvard Solness in Ibsen’s play "The Master
Builder," as a man who begins to question his life after a young person
challenges his views.
"Cook’s a respected man in the community, like Halvard. … I think he
sees his role in terms of a gardener who has to be ruthless about keeping the
garden pruned. There’s a line he says to Jimmy, ‘Why should a garden be
perfect and not the town? People need more care than a garden.’"
