Set a strong component of play contemplating aging

Herb Gardner's "I'm Not Rappaport" won the Tony Award for best play in 1986 and ran for a couple of years, but in 2009 it's not so easy to see why. It has some laughs, it mulls over some serious issues, but it feels pretty lightweight.

It starts with two guys in their 80s sitting on a bench in front of a bridge in New York's Central Park. (The cleverly designed multilevel set by Eric Kinder is one of the strongest elements in the production.) The white guy regales the black guy relentlessly about how he's an undercover agent going by the code name Hernando. The black guy, Midge, is annoyed by the codger, who's clearly Jewish, not Cuban.

The two go on to swap stories -- Midge's are truthful, about his job as a building super and his five marriages, while Hernando's (eventually we learn his real name is Nat) are the polemics of a still-flaming socialist firebrand.

Under Jennifer Frank's direction, Akin Smith's Midge is well-rounded and seems like a real person, but Jeff Clevenger's Nat is more like a long, long impression of Walter Matthau at his most bombastic. The character is supposed to be prickly yet lovable, but here he's mostly tedious, especially in an unfocused rant at a menacing street punk.

Nat is an old man, so it's understandable that he doesn't move around much, but Frank has him perform with hardly a hand gesture, leaving him even more static.

Gardner's setup includes other characters who come by and stir things up. Elliot Eisenberg plays Danforth, the head of the tenants association that's looking to fire Midge; Emma Mason is Laurie, a pretty young ex-junkie who arouses the sympathies (among other things) of Nat and Midge; and J.R. Foster is the dealer to whom she owes money. Thomas Gordon is Gilley, the punk who has been shaking down Midge, and Eve DeVirgilis plays Nat's daughter Clara.

Frank does much better directing the actors in these smaller roles, and they all give strong performances.

The most affecting moments of the play contemplate the plight of the elderly. "We done the sin of leavin' slow," Midge tells Nat. And later: "The trouble is not that life is too short, but that it's very, very long."

Susan Haubenstock is a Henrico County-based freelance writer and editor. She can be contacted at .