Rocket to the Moon

Rocket to the Moon

The Peccadillo Theater Company

Theatre at St. Clement’s

March 7, 2015

Timeless script!  Outstanding acting!  Insightful directing!  That’s all there is to say about The Peccadillo Theater Company’s production of Clifford Odets’ Rocket to the Moon at the Theatre at St. Clement’s.

Photo courtesy of
The Peccadillo Theater Company

It’s 1938 and Dr. Ben Stark, D.D.S., is cajoled into taking an introspective look at his life.  He has been held in place by his wife of ten years.  She rules.  She controls.  She knows best.  His dental practice is not the fulfillment of his dreams that he expected.  Mr. Prince, Dr. Stark’s father-in-law, tells him that an affair with his pretty new secretary, Cleo, could give him a new perspective on life.  “Take a rocket to the moon!” says Mr. Prince, “Explode!”  The complexity of the plot begins as Cleo’s bleak personal life is juxtaposed against her lies and dreams of becoming a dancer.  When the affair between Dr. Stark and Cleo begins, she also starts dating Willy Wax, a famous dance director and wolf in his own right.  Meanwhile, Mr. Prince falls in love with Cleo, and offers her something no one else can, financial security. 

The entire production is amazing.  Director Dan Wackerman has a clear understanding of Odets’ themes and rhythms.  The cast is spectacular.  Ned Eisenberg plays Dr. Stark with warmth, optimism, and pathos.  Jonathan Hadary is witty and bitingly charming as the eccentric Mr. Prince.  Katie McClellan gives the role of Cleo a fire that burns through the character’s naiveté.  Larry Bull (as Phil Cooper, D.D.S.), Michael Keyloun (as Walter “Frenchy” Jensen, D.P.M.), and Lou Liberatore (as Willy Wax) create sharp characters with clarity and specific back stories that communicate a strong sense of the societal mores and taboos of the time period. 

Clifford Odets’ script illustrates how society reinforces the limitations men and women put on themselves.  The male characters struggle with their roles as providers in an economic depression.  The two female characters are strong depictions of how women were treated and encapsulated during that time period.  Dr. Stark’s wife Belle, sharply played by Marilyn Matarrese, is partner and controller, while Cleo is young, single and treated as nothing more than an object, a possession.  Their impassioned struggle to transcend the limitations put upon them by society is matched by how they in turn manipulate the men around them.  This view of society as an enforcer of restraint by imposing roles and restrictions transcends time.

Ned Eisenberg and Marilyn Matarrese in Clifford Odets' Rocket to the Moon
Photo courtesy of the Peccadillo Theater Company

The set and lighting by Harry Feiner transported me to the hot summer months of 1938.  The large open windows in the office waiting room created the sense that we were on the twelfth floor of an office building.  At one point in the third act Dr. Stark refers to his office as his prison.  This comparison made it clear to me why some of Mr. Feiner’s choices in the floor plan were made.  The details set the time period perfectly.  Amy C. Bradshaw’s costumes and Paul Huntley’s wigs were the icing on the cake in creating this crisp 1938 New York setting. 

Clifford Odets makes you ask yourself that if the mundane of your life is not important enough, why are you repeating it every day.  Why aren’t you seeking more?  Are society’s limits strong enough to keep you down?  It is amazing how a script so full of social commentary can be so personal, yet this is what makes it still valid to an audience today.  As Frenchy says of Dr. Stark, “His unhappiness is a dangerous habit of which he is not fully aware.”  Go see the play and be ready to take a deep, realistic look at yourself.

Domenick Danza