Playhouse's performance of 'Chapter Two' likeable despite forced humor

Watching the Brown County Playhouse's new production of Neil Simon's "Chapter Two" this weekend, I found myself all over the critical spectrum. \nExcept for a fine leading performance by Robert K. Johansen as George, it seemed as if the other members of the cast were trying to wring every moment of hysterical laughter they could out of the text. The comedy felt forced and Simon's witty banter was not servicing the characters; instead, it was alienating them from the audience. My expectations for the show had been high, and my fears of being disappointed were growing.\nThe show itself follows the lives of recently widowed George and recently divorced Jennie as they fall in and out and back in love. Secondary to the trials of Jenny and George are Leo and Faye, played by Bruce Burgun and Martha Jacobs, who are both looking for something to fill the void of their own sterile married lives. \nPerhaps the reason I was resistant to the production was because Simon's dialogue attempted to make these characters too funny too fast. Only George's humor, which was a defense mechanism, seemed like something the character would actually say.\nFortunately, as the production progressed, the actors seemed to ease into their characters. While Johansen managed to establish himself the second he stepped onstage, his counterpart Alissa Stamatis was a little harder to read. Her portrayal of Jennie was not especially complex. The audience knows that with her marriage over, Jennie would rather sit and read the classics, than think about ever finding another man. While all of this is interesting material, it is all drawn from the dialogue and not the performance. Contrarily, Johansen as George lets us know how deeply he loved his wife, Barbara, just by the look on his face when he first says her name.\nBut through a stroke of luck and plot manipulation, Jennie and George have a wonderfully sweet meeting over the phone, and the show finds its color. In an extraordinarily short amount of time George courts Jennie, they fall in love and get married. George and Jennie turn out to have a chemistry together that makes both characters glow. But the pain beneath the surface of George's character means a rough road ahead. If the first act made falling in love seem easy, then the second act shows just how hard love actually is. The play does not ask the audience to suspend their disbelief and accept impossible circumstances. Instead, it acknowledges them and shows how the characters worked through them.\nComplementary to the main plot are the trials of Leo and Faye as they try to bring new meaning to their married lives. Bruce Burgun as Leo, whose humor initially was abrasive and annoying, became endearing. His comedy was unforced and seemed to have a purpose. Instead of wishing he would leave and never come back, I became eager for his every appearance onstage. \n"Chapter Two" is a play of expectations. The characters are all driven and halted by where their expectations lead them. The audience has expectations as well from Neil Simon's text. Of course they expect it to be humorous, but they also want it to possess genuine human qualities. My hesitation to enjoy myself stemmed from the initial lack of humanity in the humor. But that hesitation quickly passed when the characters opened up to their humanity and allowed the audience to laugh with recognition instead of simply laughing at them. In the end, "Chapter Two" was an entirely likable and warm production. It was not brilliant or groundbreaking, but it found just the right note to play on the audience's expectations.