Love And Marriage

Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” arguably has some of the funniest exchanges between a man and a woman ever written, as newlyweds Paul and Corie Bratter adjust to life in a one-room New York apartment that’s five flights up.

Paul is an up-and-coming (and very uptight) attorney - with an important case in court in the morning - and Corie is a delightfully daffy free spirit.

It doesn’t bother her that the skylight leaks when it snows, their neighbor goes i sn and out through the window, and the steam heat works backwards.

Simon’s sweet and simple look at love makes for roll-inthe-aisles comedy and has ever since it debuted on Broadway in 1963.

But Luke Perkinson, who is directing the play for Fort Smith Little Theater, says there’s a deeper thread that runs underneath the laughter.

“I think the subtle point that gets across, seeing this show night in and night out, is that people have a hard time distinguishing between wants and needs,” says Perkinson, a veteran actor who studied with Second City in Chicago. “Corie’s wants are for her husband to be as wild and carefree as she is, but what she needs is someone to balance her out” and vice versa, he says.

The same is true for Corie’s Mother, Ethel Banks, and Victor Velasco, the upstairs neighbor.

What Velasco wants, Perkinson says, is a young woman to show off on his arm, but what he needs is someone to take care of him. What Mrs. Banks wants is grandchildren and to move into that stage of her life, but what she needs is someone to take care of.

“They all kind of get slappedin the face” by this new understanding, he adds.

Parkinson’s theory might also apply to Tina Dale, the actress playing Corie Bratter. When she tried out two summers ago for “The Sound of Music,” what she wanted was a chance to perform with her daughter and just have fun.

Apparently what she needed was the chance to meet the man of her dreams - and she did. Ironically, her fiance Cliff Scott is playing Mr. Velasco in “Barefoot in the Park.”

Dale, Features editor for the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith, says she’s nothing like her character, and Scott tends to agree.

“Most of the time, she’s a lot more down to earth than Corie,” he says. “Corie is kind of flying through life by the seat of her pants, and Tina doesn’t really do that.”

Scott, who teaches in the business school at the University of Arkansas in Fort Smith, does say they’d hoped to play opposite each other in the play. Instead, he’s cast against Corie’s mother.

“I’ll never forgive Luke for that,” he jokes.