A View of The Winter View

Review of Martha J. Thomas’ play "The Winter View"

The
passages of life are clearly shown through Martha J. Thomas’s play
“The Winter View.” A Hadley Players production, “The Winter
View” is directed by Ward Nixon and running at the Harlem School of
the Arts Theatre, located at 647 St. Nicholas Avenue in Manhattan
until November 21
st.

The
actors combine their forces to make this light romantic comedy a cat
and mouse game with widower Amos (Ralph McCain) being the mouse and
the single and widowed church members being the cats. A member and
deacon of the Friendship Baptist Church, Amos’s marriage comes to an
end when his wife of over 40 years passes and suddenly Amos finds
himself surrounded by eager church women determined to snatch him up.
Just as determined to keep these women at bay is his daughter
Samantha, who at age 40 is still trying to be Daddy’s little girl.
In the mix is Queenie (Valarie Tekosky) who was a life long friend of
Amos and his wife. Queenie tries to be a source of comfort to Amos
and Samantha in their time of grief and in a subtle way a mother
figure to Samantha (Alexandra Foucard) whose ability to choose the
right man and save money is poor at best.

Roscoe,
Amos’s best friend, is played by Rodney Sheley. Married, Roscoe
seeks to live the single life vicariously through Amos. Thus, he is
more than willing to push Amos into the arms of all the women.
Seeing it as an opportunity to be the rooster in the hen house,
Roscoe encourages Amos to take advantage of the ladies offers to
cook, clean and just be available for “anything” anytime. At
first, Amos is too busy missing his wife but with the continual
nudging of Roscoe and the non stop advances of the women, Amos starts
to like the attention.

The
comic relief comes via the catty bickering of church women Mattie
(Kimberlee Monroe) and Florence (Cooki Winborn) who while friends are
competitors for Amos’s affections. Each vies for Amos’s attention by
slicing each other up in his absence and behaving sweet and
flirtatious in his presence. Flattered by all the attention Amos
takes a ride on this merry-go-round of female attention to the
consternation of his daughter who wants Daddy all to herself. That
is Daddy and his wallet all to herself.

Realizing
that Samantha is unable to keep money in the bank or a man, Amos
begins to worry about his daughter’s prospects and future.
Especially since she has used up much of her trust fund on men who
have refused to pay her back for the second time. Amos tires of
fighting his grown daughter’s battles and also worries whether he
will have a future wife with Samantha around making certain her
father does not get too close to another woman. He turns to Queenie
for help and guidance and finds that love was closer to home than he
realized.

The
Winter View” is a warm, witty and entertaining play that states
love can be found within all the seasons of life, even in the winter
of ones life.

I
recommend this play.

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