Porch chatter, overheard, becomes muse on friendship, faith
Ten years ago, at the height of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, three older women, all good Irish Catholics, sat down on a front porch in Lowell to chat.
One of the women didn't quite understand what was going on. One of the others had to - quite innocently but in specific detail - explain exactly what the president was up to.
In the house that day was one of the women's amused son: playwright, actor, and director Jack Neary.
"I can't get a whole play out of it, but I can get 10 minutes," he thought.
The multitalented Neary did write a 10-minute play for the Boston Theatre Marathon. Over the next few years, this piece began to grow and merge with other short plays, until it evolved into the full-length comedy/drama "The Porch," which premieres tonight at Stoneham Theatre.
Neary expanded the characters of the three women, Gert, Alma, and Marjorie, and added husbands for two of them. The characters gossip and talk about Foxwoods bus trips, potato salad recipes, and Lawrence Welk, as well as the sex life of the president.
"They are so innocent, they get away with it," he said.
For Neary, the play comes after a lifetime of work in the theater; he has a resume so lengthy it would take 10 minutes just to recite the high points.
His plays, which have been produced all over the country, include "First Night," "Kong's Night Out," "To Forgive, Divine," "Jerry Finnegan's Sister," and adaptations of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and James's "The Turn of the Screw."
He has directed nearly 100 New England theatrical productions, performed as an actor on stage and television, and written screenplays. He has founded and run several theater companies. He taught acting. He last appeared at Stoneham Theatre as Rogers in "And Then There Were None" and directed the 2006 version of "A Christmas Story." His career has taken him all over the country - and twice to New York to live - but for now he's happy to live in his native Lowell.
For all that, like many artists who have devoted their life to their muse, he's still working on creating that really big show-stopping, pension-punching hit. He has high hopes for "The Porch," because it is a "very commercial vehicle" with appeal beyond the New England region.
And besides that: "It gets the loudest laughs in the first 10 minutes of any play that I've ever heard," Neary said.
Still, the drama has a serious side. It's about the nature of friendship and faith among the five people, one of whom faces a stunning crisis.
"You're watching these moments in time about marriage and relationships," Neary said. "As the play goes on, there's something odd going on in the life of one of the characters; we don't quite know what it is. As the play culminates there's this big stunning moment when she reveals what is going on."
He said he suspects Stoneham audience members will see themselves in the characters, even though they're not going to say "that's me, that's me."
"They're going to say, 'oh that's her; that's him,' " he said. "They're not going to recognize themselves. But it's for them. It's a play for people of a certain age."
It also reflects Neary's love of the quirks of New England. He delights in coaching the actors - Ellen Colton as Alma, John Davin as Leo, Cheryl McMahon as Marjorie, Sheridan Thomas as Gert, and Richard Snee as Pat - in the nuances of Hub speak. From listening to Boston sports talk radio, he said, he has come up with new words for his scripts. Like "dissheah." As in: "Dissheah the Red Sox aren't as good as last year."
But Neary is a playwright in a classical mode; he relies on plot and character to drive the narrative forward.
"Audiences are structured to be comfortable with that format," he said. "I write a lot for people who don't come to the theater that often. I write for husbands who are dragged to the theater by their wives. And usually they have a good time, and the reason they have a good time is either they laugh a lot or they care about what happens next."
