Director Necia Beck said playwright Ernest Thompson once said he wrote “On Golden Pond” to depict a dysfunctional family. Beck sees the play differently.
“It instead shows the strengths of relationships, as well as growing into strong relationships,” she said.
“On Golden Pond” is the latest from the Kent County Theatre Guild, and opens at 8 p.m. Friday, March 12, at the theater, 140 E. Roosevelt Ave., Dover.
The play features the Thayer family, led by Ethel and Norman. The aging couple has been spending each summer at their home on Golden Pond, and this year is no different in that respect. It brings changes in the family and its dynamic, though. The longtime couple is facing new challenges, such as Norman’s fading memory. Their daughter, Chelsea, whose relationship with Norman has long been strained, shows up to the home with a new husband — and stepson — in tow.
New relationships form and old ones evolve in the show made popular by the 1981 movie starring Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. Although the story is the same as the movie, Beck said, the characters are a bit different, or at least their actions and reactions are. She advises people who haven’t seen the movie to hold off on seeing it until after they come to the play. And if they have seen it, she wants them to keep an open mind to their production.
“I appreciate the challenge of taking a well-known show and making it our own,” she said. “Our cast makes it their own.”
She wants the audience to leave with a new appreciation of an old classic. She also wants them to be able to lose themselves in the show, which is a combination of drama and comedy.
“Farce is fun, drama can be very challenging, but the comedy/drama is more real,” she said.
Another fun part of the show for both herself and the actors onstage is working with a cast that has so much history. Husband-and-wife duo Mike and Chris Polo play the Thayers, and Beck’s husband Charlie plays the couple’s new son-in-law. Almost all the cast members are regulars at the guild.
“They already have the basics for the chemistry that the characters need,” Beck said.
The show forces characters to change in a short amount of time, which provides a challenge for actors. It’s not easy to find material that challenges even seasoned actors, Beck said, and that was part of its draw.
Email Sarika Jagtiani at sarika.jagtiani@doverpost.com
