Rehearsals for On Golden Pond begin tonight at The Theatre Factory in Trafford, Pennsylvania, and I am going to play Norman Thayer, Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Department of English. On Golden Pond, which first opened in New York in 1978, has been revived many times over the years, by both professional and amateur groups. It is a play that is especially close to the heart of older actors because it offers two really juicy roles for the geriatric set. But while it offers those roles with one hand, it creates something of a problem for those actors who get cast with the other. For women the problem is Katherine Hepburn. For the man cast as Norman Thayer, Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Department of English, the problem is Henry Fonda.
What Marlon Brando has done for Stanley Kowalski, Frederick March for Willy Loman, and Gregory Peck for Atticus Finch, Henry Fonda has done for Norman Thayer. He and they have created the definitive performance. They are not simply legendary tours de force that live in the memories of audiences and actors alike, they are film performances universally available to all, as handy as the nearest DVD player. They are always there as standards of comparison. The actor can always envision the people in the audience groaning at some line reading or gesture or expression, saying to themselves: "That's not the way Marlon did it." Pity the poor actor, who gets the part of a lifetime only to find critics saying he's no Gregory Peck.
A part in a brand new play is a tabula rasa, to steal from John Locke. The actor has the freedom to create a character. He is not tied down by preconceptions, his own or those of his audience. He can look at the script with fresh eyes. He has the opportunity to create something new. He has the opportunity to be the Henry Fonda for this new name on this new page, to set the bar for actors and audiences to come.
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