Brighton Beach Memoirs

Written by:
Neil Simon

Opening: March 23, 1990

Closing: April 1, 1990

Number of performances: 7

Time:September 1937

Setting:
Brighton Beach

Synopsis:
Here is part one of Neil Simon's autobiographical trilogy: a portrait of the writer as a Brooklyn teenager in 1937 living with his family in crowded, lower middle class circumstances. Eugene the young Neil Simon is the narrator and central character. His mind is full of fiercely fantasized dreams of baseball and dimly fantasized images of girls. The play captures a few days in the life of a struggling Jewish household that includes Eugene's hard working father, his sharp tongued mother, his older and vastly more experienced brother Stanley, his widowed aunt and her two young daughters. As Eugene's father says, "If you didn't have a problem, you wouldn't live in this house." Two have heart disease, one has asthma, and two at least temporarily lose jobs needed to keep the straitened family afloat. Family miseries are used to raise such enduring issues as sibling resentments, guilt ridden parent child relationships and the hunger for dignity in a poverty stricken world. It is a deeply appealing play that deftly mixes drama with comedy.