Odd couple

Difficult People is not easy

by Robert David Sullivan

DIFFICULT PEOPLE, By Yosef Bar-Yosef. Translated by Emily Harris. Directed by Rachel Shatil. Set and costume design by Spencer Brinker. Lighting by C&J Production. Sound by Phillip Kaplan. With Jane Lukoff, Frank Gayton, Forrest Walter, and Stephen Capriulo. Presented by the Portal Theater Company at the Works Theater, Thursday through Sunday through May 16.

Simon Gold returns from one of his frequent visits to Israel complaining of a sore back and announcing that he has imported a gift for his perpetually single sister: an available man. "What's to understand?" he asks underwhelmed Rachel. "I got a slipped disc, you got a husband!"

True, the potential husband already has one failed marriage, and he has spent time in a mental institution, but a Jewish spinster and immigrant in 1960s London doesn't have a lot of choices. (The Golds fled Eastern Europe during World War II.) "Whatever the land of Israel sends us, we gotta take it, even if it's last year's oranges," as Simon insists later in the play. And to complicate matters, Simon has enticed Mr. Right to London by paying his airfare and giving a false description of Rachel. He's knocked her age down from 42 to 39, for example, and not mentioned that she's been through two live-in boyfriends, each of whom vanished after finishing medical school at her expense. To protect both his investment and his sister's chance at "happiness," Simon warns the plainspoken Rachel not to contradict his lies.

Difficult People is accurately described as "a comedy of sorts" by the Portal Theater Company in its posters for the play at Somerville's Works Theater. Israeli playwright Yosef Bar-Yosef uses a plot that suggests comedy (and there are a fair number of one-liners and slapstick bits in the play), but there's a feeling of sadness that never lifts from the dingy apartment where all of the action takes place. Director Rachel Shatil emphasizes this mood to good effect, slowing down the pace and allowing some painful silences to divert us from the notion that creative matchmaking is all that's needed to bring happiness to these characters.

As Simon, Frank Gayton calls to mind a younger, thinner version of Phil Silvers and his Sergeant Bilko sit-com character. He's brash, manipulating (telling his sister, "If you have one more disappointment, I'm going to go crazy"), and a spin doctor before the term was invented. Softening Rachel up for his surprise visitor, Simon promises, "He has a certain charm . . . if you look hard enough." Initially, I found Gayton's high-energy performance somewhat grating, especially when paired against Jane Lukoff's discreetly suffering Rachel, but it pays off in the end. When things don't work out as intended, Simon's loud frustration turns him into a sympathetic character. He is genuinely trying to protect his sister ("I'm sick of you clinging to the walls when you walk down the street," he tells her), and he eloquently voices the feelings of exile, and eternal wandering, that Jewish immigrants have felt in countless nations and time periods.

Lukoff is dignified and pathetic at the same time in her portrayal of Rachel, who valiantly tries to assimilate to her adopted homeland of England. "Maybe you'd like some tea," she says at awkward moments, which occur frequently. Forrest Walter is showy, but always compelling, as Layzer, the near-stranger that Simon hustles into London for his sister's benefit. His pants are about two inches too short, and he's got Eraserhead-like hair; though already high-strung, he can't get enough sugar cubes for his tea. Layzer's insistence on truth telling, a trait that will shortly cause heartaches for everyone concerned, is neatly established upon his entrance. "You're soaking wet!", Rachel says to her visitor as he comes in from the rain. "Not me, my coat is wet," he replies with the grave insistence of a five-year-old. Walter manages to get across his character's many eccentricities while keeping him a (barely) plausible mate for the more grounded Rachel. The only other character is Rachel's blustery and heavily accented landlord, Benny (Stephen Capriulo), who doesn't quite work as a kind of genuine comic relief amid the more melancholic humor in the rest of the play.

Difficult People certainly doesn't qualify as easy entertainment, but it never becomes preachy or heavy-handed. I don't think Layzer would like it, though -- not sweet enough.