The prolific Horovitz, now entering his fifth decade as a significant American playwright, sets a bountiful table for actors. There’s a reason his early plays helped launch the likes of Al Pacino, John Cazale, Jill Clayburgh, Richard Dreyfuss, and Scott Glenn. Horovitz reliably offers his actors a feast of elliptical, vaguely menacing dialogue, plots that are booby-trapped with surprises and twisty turnabouts, action that is both physical and psychological, and sometimes, as in “Sins of the Mother,’’ a chance to try out their Boston accents.Under the direction of the playwright, a vibrant cast makes the most of it in a new production of “Sins’’ at Gloucester Stage Company. (A one-act play when it premiered at Gloucester Stage six years ago, it was expanded by Horovitz into a full-length work).The emotional center of “Sins’’ is occupied by Bobby Maloney (Robert Walsh), a Vietnam veteran in his mid-50s with a terminally ill wife and bleak job prospects. He’s not alone: The fishing industry has declined, bringing lean times to Gloucester. That leaves Bobby plenty of time to chew the fat with the three other unemployed guys who join him early one morning in the stevedores’ union meeting room of a largely closed fish-processing plant.There is Frankie Verga, a loose cannon embittered by the success of his identical twin brother, Philly (Christopher Whalen plays both roles); Dubbah Morrison (David Nail), a well-meaning doofus relegated to boasting of his vegetarianism (“I’m 13 1/2-years meat-sober’’ is how he puts it); and Douggie Shimmatarro (Francisco Solorzano), whose life story delivers a jolt to the others, especially when they learn who his mother was.There will be no spoilers here, but suffice it to say that the foursome’s conversation steadily moves into dangerous territory, exposing long-buried secrets and hidden connections that build to a confrontation. In detailing those connections, “Sins’’ is at times overly schematic and reliant on coincidences. A second-act soliloquy by Dubbah seems tacked on, as if the playwright concluded it was simply the character’s turn to bare his soul.But Horovitz, now 70, continues to pour such energy into plot construction and such wit into his dialogue that it carries “Sins’’ past such flaws. Gloucester, as it often does for Horovitz, functions in “Sins’’ as more than a setting, more even than a subject: as a virtual sixth character. Eugene Ionesco once described Horovitz as “both a sentimentalist and a realist,’’ and that is especially true in his depiction of Gloucester.With its rough-edged protagonists and its catalog of social pathologies (including drug use and child abuse), “Sins’’ is not a play to gladden the heart of a Chamber of Commerce official. Yet the playwright takes contagious joy in capturing the rhythms of local speech and the flavor of local folkways. He knows that no cultural anthropologist can rival a native’s walking knowledge of Gloucester’s social history. Consider this wonderful exchange that opens the play: Bobby: “Your name’s Douggie?’’ Douggie: “Douglas. Yuh, Douggie.’’ Bobby: “You’re not Evvie Shimmatarro’s brother?’’ Douggie: “Evvie Shimmatarro’s brother’s older than me.’’ Bobby: “Evvie Shimmatarro’s brother is Douggie, right?’’ Douggie: “Yuh, but, he’s older.’’ Bobby: “Yuh, but, both’a your names are Douggie Shimmatarro?’’ Douggie: “Yuh, right, but, he’s older than me.’’ Bobby: “But, isn’t there another Douggie Shimmatarro over in Lanesville? Richie Shimmatarro’s middle son?’’ Douggie: “I heard that. Those are different Shimmatarros.’’ Bobby: “So, you’re saying there are three Douggie Shimmatarros livin’ in Gloucester?’’ Douggie: “Three I know about.’’With his watchful eyes, Solorzano conveys both Douggie’s vulnerability and his tough inner core. Nail brings similar shadings to the character of Dubbah, while Whalen rises expertly to the challenge of playing Frankie and Philly. Walsh, as Bobby, has a marvelously lived-in face that evokes a gentler Lee Marvin or James Coburn. He is compelling to watch, whether that face is contorted with broken-hearted anguish or drawn so tight you can almost hear the time bomb ticking.
Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com. 
From BroadwayWorld.com
Sins of the Mother
By Israel Horovitz
Directed by Israel Horovitz
Set Design, Jenna McFarland Lord;
Costume Design, Ashley Preston;
Lighting Design, Russ Swift;
Sound Design, Ben Emerson;
Production Stage Managers, Marsha Smith and Kayla G. Sullivan;
Fight Choreographer, Robert Walsh
CAST: Robert Walsh, Bobby Maloney; Francisco Solorzano, Douggie Shimmatarro; Christopher Whalen, Frankie Verga and Philly Verga; David Nail, Dubbah Morrison
Performances through September 13 at Gloucester Stage Company
Box Office 978-281-4433 or www.gloucesterstage.org
The Gloucester Stage Company concludes its 30th anniversary season with the New England premiere of Sins of the Mother, written and directed by Founding Artistic Director Israel Horovitz. The darkly comic play invites us into the world of the struggling Gloucester fishing trade, where past is prologue for five local men whose lives are inextricably intertwined by events beyond their control and people who cause them pain.
Characterized by Horovitz's strong writing and trademark ear for dialect and language, Sins of the Mother is a compelling story well staged and well acted. It is safe to say that the director knows what the playwright had in mind, but Horovitz-the-director's stagecraft enhances Horovitz-the-writer's work by making excellent use of the three-sided platform and dramatic blocking of the four actors. He has the knack of building or diffusing tension by their positioning among numerous folding metal chairs in the first act, and raises questions for the audience with the presence of a casket onstage after intermission. We might think we know who is in there, but we cannot be sure until things get rolling.
"I saw The Perfect Storm on tv and started thinking about Gloucester," offers Douggie Shimmatarro (Francisco Solorzano) as the motivation for returning to his hometown after years of self-imposed exile in Florida. He is welcomed by Bobby Maloney (Robert Walsh), the elder statesman of the fishermen who matter-of-factly describes his service in Vietnam as a checklist of killed "gooks," mosquito bites, and dope smoking, no big deal. He seems more stirred up to learn that Douggie's late mother was Louise Martino, but he quickly regains his equilibrium and moves on, leaving Douggie and us to wonder about her significance.
It doesn't take long to find out once co-workers Frankie Verga (Christopher Whalen) and Dubbah Morrison (David Nail) arrive and engage in a rapid-fire game of Gloucester genealogy. This banter is funny and razor-sharp, full of local colloquialisms such as "wicked smaht" and "I'm just sayin'." Frankie is an irritant who gets under the skin of the others and jabs his finger in their eyes (figuratively) until everything spills out about Louise, angering Bobby and offending Douggie. Dubbah attempts to stick a cork in it, but Frankie is not to be contained and continues to spew his venom, sealing his own fate.
Like the industry that has employed them, these men are rotting from the inside out. They show up weekly at the union meeting room of the fish-processing plant to get their cards signed for the unemployment office, verifying that they looked for work, but that there is none. They come out of habit, more than hope, and to reinforce their shared sense of community and continuity. It is not so much that they like each other, but they are intimately familiar with one another, in the way that people from the same neighborhood know everybody's business because they hear it through open windows or see it played out on the street. They went to school together and know all the same people, even their namesakes who are unrelated and live in different parts of town. But the main thing that they have in common and that drives the story is a dirty secret that informed their childhoods, simmers just below the surface, and threatens to erupt with a force of volcanic proportions and consequences.
In act two, Frankie's identical twin brother, nemesis, and polar opposite Philly Verga (Christopher Whalen) appears in dark suit and dark glasses to pay his respects. Where Frankie never crossed the bridge out of Gloucester and never went to Boston, Philly moved to Quincy twelve years ago and never looked back. He is a successful owner of a car dealership with numerous salesmen working for him, and holds both his brother and father in contempt. A self-made man, he credits Oprah for helping him learn to let go and he frequently takes deep breaths while circling his arms up over his head, exhaling as he thrusts his open palms out to the side. "My secret," he tells Bobby, Douggie, and Dubbah, "is to marry Oprah to Jesus," explaining his behavior. Although he maintains a practiced calm on the surface, behind his dark glasses he oozes menace primarily because no one can see his eyes to really read him. When Philly finally tells his back story in a precise and controlled tone, the anger bubbles out between gritted teeth and clenched fists, making the others quite uncomfortable and fidgety.
Now if none of this sounds quite like a recipe for humor, don't be misled. Horovitz writes with an edgy wit and these four actors deliver it with great timing, body language, and facial expressions. Whalen manages to infuse each of the twin characters he portrays with something laughable, as well as their individual brands of menace. Nail, who originated the role of Dubbah in the world premiere of Sins by Harlequin Productions in Olympia, Washington, brings a sweetness and sensitivity to the big lug who is somewhat less developed than the other characters. Douggie and Bobby are more complex, and Solorzano and Walsh connect strongly from the opening scene, skillfully laying out the pieces of the intricate puzzle that will take shape as the play progresses. Walsh is the strong center of the ensemble as Bobby tries to keep the lid on the potential powder keg.
Pitch-perfect accents and distant waterfront sounds of gulls, inboard motors, and foghorns add to the realism of the GSC production. Jenna McFarland Lord places the fishermen in a spare, depressing room at the plant, and then plunks them into an over-decorated, decidedly feminine living room where their discomfort is palpable. The men appear to have lived in Ashley Preston's work clothes for quite some time, in sharp contrast to the Sunday best they squirm into for the wake. Lighting Design by Russ Swift is especially effective in the epilogue at a funeral home. Further atmosphere is lent by mournful strings and crackling thunder with Sound Design by Ben Emerson.
Sins of the Mother succeeds in accurately portraying a dying industry while using its demise as a metaphor for the lives of the characters. The titular maternal figure never appears, but looms large in the events of past and present for Bobby, Douggie, Dubbah, and Frankie. However, for Philly, the one guy who got out, it is a different sort of mother, arguably an "earth mother" who had an impact on his life in a good way. She taught him to let go of the people who cause him pain and move on. Evidently, she also inspired the playwright to come up with a clever conclusion. Thanks, Oprah.
This production is GSC's entry in The 70/70 Horovitz Project, a year-long world-wide event celebrating Horovitz's 70th birthday with readings and/or productions of 70 of his plays by theatre companies around the globe.
Photo credit: Shawn G. Henry (David Nail, Robert Walsh, Francisco Solorzano)
FROM: GLOUCESTER TIMES:
'Sins' on Gloucester's waterfront Horovitz' latest hits the 'Stage' tonight
By Gail McCarthy
Staff Writer
The Gloucester waterfront is again at the forefront of a new play, which has its New England premiere tonight at Gloucester Stage Company.
In "Sins of the Mother," playwright Israel Horovitz weaves a tale involving three out-of-work lumpers.The men are laborers who load or unload vessels that come into the harbor, find themselves out of work in a distressed fishing industry. "The lumpers show up to get unemployment cards signed, and a kid is there looking for work but there is no work. It turns out these three men had a relationship with this kid's mother," said Horovitz."It's a working-class play and very funny, and sort of a murder mystery," he added.The play intertwines events of the past with personal and economic politics of the present.
When the show had its West Coast debut in Washington state by Harlequin Productions, a critic wrote: "If you can afford only one play in a year, make it this one." heT synopsis of the play sets the scene: "When a young man returns to the small fishing town where grew up, he is drawn into a mystery that threatens to reveal his own past. A powerful and compelling drama about revenge, forgiveness, and the comically human struggle to decipher which is which." Horovitz said the work started off as a one-act play called "Off Season" set in Gloucester in the winter, which had its debut at Gloucester Stage in the summer of 2003. "I realized that it deserved to be a play," he said. Eric Engel, the artistic director of Gloucester Stage, said the show is one of Horovitz's finest works.
The hard-hitting work features Boston actor Robert Walsh and New York actors Christopher Whalen, David Nail and Francisco Solorzano. Solorzano, who returns to Gloucester Stage to play the role of Douggie Shimmatarro, has developed and recreated several roles in Horovitz's plays in Gloucester and New York City. He has both acting and film credits, and is a founding member of the Barefoot Theatre Company in New York City. Solorzano, who plays the young man who returns, has been involved in the play at earlier points in its evolution and staged readings. "I am so excited about doing the show here in Gloucester," he said. "I keep telling everybody in New York that I hear sea gulls every day before I go to work, and I know out the back door of that theater are boats and the waterfront."
Walsh last worked at Gloucester Stage as the director of Horovitz's "The Widow's Blind Date." A founding member of Actors' Shakespeare Project, his film credits include "Evening," "Mystic River," "Amistad," "Eight Men Out" and "State and Main." Walsh is on the faculties of A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training and Brandeis University. Whalen makes his Gloucester Stage debut playing brothers Frankie and Philly Verga. In addition to acting, he is a physical fitness enthusiast; he completed his third New York City marathon in the fall of 2007. Seattle resident Nail makes his Gloucester Stage debut as Dubbah Morrison. He originated the role of Dubbah in the world premiere of the full-length version by Harlequin Productions. He has extensive credits as a director, lighting designer, and as a rhythm tap choreographer and dancer.
"Sins of the Mother" runs from Aug. 27 through Sept. 13 at Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main St., Gloucester. For times and information on discount shows, and special events, visit www.gloucesterstage.org. For reservations or further information, call the box office at (978) 281-4433.
Gail McCarthy can be reached at gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.