Review: HAROLD AND MAUDE at The Community Players

The Pawtucket-based Community Players continued their record-breaking 104th season with the dark humored but stunningly still relevant "Harold and Maude".

Written in the 1960's by Colin Higgins as a short, 20-page One act play for his UCLA film thesis, "Harold and Maude" instead became a 1971 Paramount Pictures dark comedy with an incredible soundtrack by Cat Stevens-personal favorite is "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" starring Bud Court as Harold and Ruth Gordon as Maude. The movie, though not commercially successful in its onset, created a huge cult following as the years went on that continues to this day.  For this reviewer, this was the first and only time I have ever seen "Harold and Maude" available on the stage in this or any area and I loved it.  The Stage play, like the movie, was also not a hit when it first appeared on Broadway on February 7, 1980, lasting only a few days before closing on February 9th.  This humor may not be for everyone but for my wife and I, it was two hours of laughing, loving and introspection about life.

The production follows a 19-year-old Harold, played by the incredibly talented Noah Martinez-to be honest I didn't think anyone could get close to the original performance by Bud Cort by Martinez does and more!  Harold is a lonely boy, obsessed with death and forced to live with his overbearing mom, played by Karen Gail Kessler, who feels the key to true happiness is for Harold to find a bride. When he rigs himself to explosives or pretends to cut body parts off in order to scare off his new blind dates(all played incredibly by Izzy Labbe), his mother forces Harold to see psychiatrist Dr. Matthews, played by Dan Curtin, who, like his mother, is also of no help. But the shrink does get one of the best lines out of Harold that first session, a line I will always remember.  When the doctor is trying to get to the bottom of why Harold is so morbid, he pokes and prods him to tell him what hobbies or activities he likes to do in life.  After one of the best 10 second piece of silence in any production, Harold utters "I go to funerals".

But one day, while at one of those funerals, Harold meets Maude, played by the ultra-talented Mary Paolino(who had so many incredible lines its amazing she didn't forget any), a 79-year-old carefree woman who is the exact opposite of Harold.  While she loves to go to funerals to commermorate a person's life, she works to live each day to the fullest and let nothing-paying for things or obeying the laws-stand to name just a few-stand in her way.  What follows is a two-hour tutelage on how we all should live out lives.   Martinez and Paolino put on a production for the ages that would make the originals-Bud Cort who just passed away at 77 last week and the incredible Ruth Gordon, so proud.  Though written nearly 75 years ago, "Harold and Maude" still has a lot to teach us all.  How are you spending your life?  Why aren't you happy? Why don't you love more? Why worry so much?