RELATIONSHIPS ON STAGE
Coach House Players production of ‘You Know I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running’ opens Friday
Coach House Players staging of Robert Anderson’s “You Known I Can’t Hear You When the Water’s Running” promises an edgy laugh-filled look at relationships at different stages in life.
The play, co-directed by Coach House veteran Barbara Melzer and newcomer Ashley Gwen Patrick, opens its two-week run on Friday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Melzer, perhaps best known around Coach House for directing several mysteries along with one musical, said she has enjoyed the change of pace with this show.
“I wanted to do something a little edgy,” she said.
Melzer is directing this production while recovering from a broken shoulder she suffered in a fall just before Christmas. “I couldn’t drive in the beginning,” she said. “My right arm was in a sling.”
Patrick said one of the unique elements of this play is it’s comprised of four separate scenes with different characters yet with an overarching theme of relationships and seasons of relationships. She added that the show, first introduced in 1967, was a hit on Broadway with 700 performances before it closed.
Patrick said she definitely does not recommend the show for children. “There’s a little bit of language,” she said. “If you’re 18 and older you can watch this show and get something you can relate to.”
Melzer said one of the scenes, titled “Shock of Recognition,” involves middle-aged actor Richard Pawling (Kyle Woerner) trying to get into a play that the playwright Jack Barnstable (Stephen Cerini) is trying to pitch a producer to put on.
“He wants the actor to come out naked on the stage,” she said.
Patrick is directing the second scene, “Footsteps of Dove,” which takes playgoers to the basement of a mattress store alongside the couple George (Robert Cogliati) and Harriet (Deborah Tiberio Temple) as they shop for a new mattress.
The husband is searching for a metaphor for why he doesn’t want to downgrade from a 54-inch mattress to a twin size, Patrick said. “After 25 years of marriage, you know how to push each other,” she added.
The third scene, directed by Melzer, is titled “I’ll be home in for Christmas,” involving the husband and wife Chuck (Kyle Woerner) and Edith (Carolyn Silveira), who are trying to figure out how to talk to their adult children about sex, Patrick said.
“He’s very uptight and not talking about things and she’s very liberal,” she said. “It goes back and forth about why they shouldn’t tell their children about certain things.”
In the last scene, “I’m Herbert” the audience meets an elderly married couple sitting on their rocking chairs, Melzer said. They are played by Ralph and Mary Mills, who are married in real life, she added.
“They’re naming things and their mind is slipping away,” she said.
Melzer noted that Ralph Mills has never acted in his life and she was amazed how quickly he memorized his lines in rehearsals, even managing to go “off book” before his wife who has acted for many years. “He worked so hard to get into this,” she added.
Patrick comes to Coach House from a film back