Playwright: Brian Golden. At: Theatre Seven at the Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln. Tickets: 773-404-7336;. www.theatreseven.org; $18. Runs through: Dec. 20
Cooperstown is a scenic and traditional New England village of fewer than 3,000 people that has achieved renown and tourism allure because of its famous opera house, its art museum, its literary ties to James Fennimore Cooper ( "The Last of the Mohicans" ) and its Federalist-era atmosphere. Cooperstown also retains the false claim that Abner Doubleday invented baseball there in 1839 ( he didn't ) , and is home to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Except for the baseball stuff, you'd never know any of this from Brian Golden's play, which portrays Cooperstownif it portrays the town at allas a vaguely redneck, baseball-obsessed small city that feels like Kansas. Set in 1962, the play concerns a few folks in a Cooperstown diner on the weekend Jack Robinson became the first African-American inducted into the Hall. Junior, who is Black, runs the place but absentee white owner Jimmy Fletcher won't make him manager. Junior's kid sister, Sharee, works the tables and sides with the local Black Power organization ( in Cooperstown in 1962? ) . The other waitress is baseball fanatic Dylan, a tender-tough local girl who hits it off with Huck, a twentysomething out-of-town baseball tourist come for the induction. Jimmy's beautiful Asian wife, Grace, also is present representing Jimmy's interests and her own in a triangle with Junior.
The play has just as little to do with baseball as it does with Cooperstown. Rather, it offers a microcosm of American Society, circa 1962, on the verge of Vietnam and civil rights activism. The never-seen Jimmy "owns half the town" and has statewide political aspirations. Jimmy is The Man, a one-size-fits-all white authority figure who withholds opportunity from Junior, keeps his wife in a luxurious but loveless marriage, and who owns the diner targeted for trashing by the Black Power group. Politics alone might fill the diner banquette, but Golden also has each character unveil a personal story of failure or loneliness, and all in 90 minutes. It comes off as a baseball Bus Stop, definitely minor-league William Inge. That's not necessarily bad, but it's very old-fashioned, very by-the-numbers and also has a type of heightened naturalism that's more difficult than it seems to write and perform. Although earnestly written and performed, Cooperstown lacks situational truth.
The Theatre Seven production is pleasant, if uninspired, under Brian Stojak's direction. Cecil Burroughs is low-key and rock-solid as Junior, a not-unkind man who plays his cards close to his vest. Tracey Kaplan as tough-tender Dylan impresses with her energy and sharp attack. Set designer Michelle N. Warner provides a suitably realistic but generic diner, but lose the jukebox: it was an ancient relic even 1962. Costume designer Brenda Winstead shines where she must, with Grace's stylish period outfits ( nice pearls! ) .