REVIEW Oakland players shine in 'Tavern'

A 12-year-old boy is questioning his Catholic faith.
By GARRY L. CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A nostalgic, humorous look at growing up Catholic in the late 1950s was presented Friday evening as the Oakland Center for the Arts opened its production of "Over The Tavern."
Told from the point of view of Rudy, a precocious 12-year-old, the play revolves around the Pazinski family of Buffalo, N.Y.
The family lives above the tavern owned by Chet Pazinski, a somewhat ill-tempered man who is more feared than loved in his home.
Rudy, on the cusp of adolescence, has begun to question some of the things he's being taught at St. Casimir's, the neighborhood parochial school.
Rudy's world
In fact, he's giving his teacher, Sister Clarissa, nearly apoplectic fits with his innocent questions that, to her, border on sacrilege.
Rudy's siblings Eddie and Annie are coping as best they can with their father's temper, and Georgie, their mentally retarded brother, just loves them all, though he has picked up some nasty language that he repeats at the most inopportune moments.
Anchoring the family is Ellen, the mother, who faces down her husband's outbursts with a bit of her own, often recognizing Chet's own fears and weaknesses beneath.
Rudy's questions surround many unanswerable themes, including why his brother, Georgie, was born retarded, and why his dad can't be like Robert Young on "Father Knows Best."
Told with love and humor, this piece by Tom Dudzick actually takes a look at his own upbringing and some of the critical moments of family life that poignantly turn the family's destiny within their own little circle and also their faith, which is never abandoned, but increasingly better understood.
Cast
Joey Monda made a perfectly hilarious Rudy as he searched, questioned, probed and even acted out his TV hero, Ed Sullivan, along with special guest, Jesus Christ.
Cast as his "nemesis," Sister Clarissa, was the excellent Regina Reynolds.
Though I didn't grow up Catholic, most of the audience must have, as her speeches and actions were met with much laughter and knowing nods. Her portrayal as a crusty old disciplinarian was complete with clicker and an ever-present ruler to dispense justice to recalcitrant hands.
Paul Sauline as Georgie was truly inspired, never dropping out of character for a moment, and April Sauline as Annie, and Elliott Jordan as Eddie looked and acted as if they'd just stepped out of a '50s sitcom mixed in with a little of the '70s "Happy Days."
Playing the family's patriarch, Chet, was Ed Smith, who tempered his character's angry outbursts with an underlying element of sadness that came to the fore late in the second act.
And, finally, providing that all-important family glue was Denise Sculli as Ellen, whose remarkable performance makes one believe that this is a real family trying to make it in a real world with very real and common obstacles to overcome, even in the so-called "Golden Age" of the 1950s.
clark@vindy.com