My Mother’s Bookie and Billy Shine at the ATA

Irving A. Greenfield was an acclaimed novelist and playwright who left us in 2020, and performances at the American Theater of Actors honor his legacy 4 years later with two of his rarer works.

In My Mother’s Bookie, Ginger Kipps gives a funny, authoritative, and poignant performance as Anna Graubard, a 102-year-old-blind woman living in a rest home who has taken up gambling. Anna is snarky and foul-mouthed, but clearly has a right to be. “If I had my eyesight I’d turn this place upside down,” she rages while threatening an “old blind woman’s curse” on anyone who would cross her. But anger quickly turns to despair: “If you live too long, you’re thrown away,” she laments. Elizabeth (Nicole Arcieri) is her kind but frustrated caretaker, pleading with her repeatedly to get dressed and be ready for when her son Stanly arrives to take her out to their weekly lunch. “You have a one-track mind,” Anna scolds. Michael Bordwell is the exasperated Stanly, a semi-successful author prone to speaking in philosophical similes when he’s not begging his mother to cooperate. Stanly is aghast at Anna’s new betting habit, and the fact that she insists on staying in the home to meet with her bookie Tony Numbers (Ken Coughlin) to collect a supposed windfall. Stanly meets with Ms. Holland, the manager of the rest home who is perhaps even more stressed and antagonized by Anna than he and Elizabeth. But this is also justified: Ms. Holland reveals Anna’s stunning act of retaliation against the home management’s dodgy business practices, which have gotten the attention of the FBI.

Stanly finally gets Anna to go out to eat (in a segue set to the tune of “Ladies Who Lunch”) with her condition being that Tony Numbers meets them there. Sally Emmet (Rookie Tiwari) is their gracious server, who casts an air of calm over proceedings as during lunch, Anna and Stanly move away from angst and into understanding (and financial gain).

Billy was one of the nominated winners of the Yukon Pacific Play Award, and it is given a powerful rendering here.

Harry Knight (Tony Coughlin), Korean War Veteran and widower, comes to his favorite bar regularly, simply because “It’s a place to be.” But this night is different—after checking in with friend and bartender Munia (Alan Hasnas), he finds himself ordering many more than his typical two vodkas—he has something on his mind, and he must get it off his chest urgently. He begins to tell Munia about something that happened on the eve of the war that changed his life forever—it involves the fate of Billy Fowler, a closeted soldier. As the tense tale unfolds, a bar patron (Michael Bordwell) listens quietly. Dressed in a green military coat, jeans and motorcycle boots, his hair long and grey, he sips his beer and never shows his face to the audience. The effect is like a ticking time bomb and ups the intensity of Harry’s narrative even further.

Skillfully inserted flashbacks illustrate Harry’s harrowing story. We see his earlier self in confrontations with the antagonistic Sergeant-Major Gibbs (Hasnas), who despised Billy. As events unfold before our eyes in both the past and the present, the two time periods are destined to eventually meet. “That long time ago is closer now than yesterday,” announces Harry ominously as events accelerate to a shocking conclusion.

The joint production serves the gripping material well, with all the actors contributing authenticity and pathos in a way that makes the audience feel they’ve truly lived through the tragedies and triumphs they describe. It is a fitting tribute to Greenwood’s vision and a great glimpse into this somewhat overlooked aspect of his prolific work.

Both plays are directed by frequent Greenfield interpreter Laurie Rae Waugh, with Lighting and Sound Tech by Jessica Newman. My Mother’s Bookie and Billy run through February 11 at the ATA.