‘Tender’ at Gloucester Stage through July 25

GLOUCESTER n “Tender,” the world premiere of a new comedy-drama at the Gloucester Stage Company, is about a 2010 California couple with an aging father and a houseful of familiar financial problems that are both going downhill faster than they can deal with.The play asks the question, how can people preserve any sense of tenderness in times that can be so hard? People should see it to get a little tenderness.Brian is a house-husband who hasn?t given up the search for a new job. Amanda is a realtor who hasn?t sold a property in months. Frank, Amanda?s father, is a retired driver who has gotten a $75,000 Winnebago free for seven days and wants to take a trip to Hearst Castle, the spot where he proposed to Amanda?s mother. All three characters are trying to do what they see as the right thing, which makes their plight incredibly moving.Amanda fears that she will treat her off-stage daughter the way Frank has treated her n and she knows something about her mother that Frank is trying to deny. Both of the play?s acts begin with snatches of upbeat TV theme music that quickly end, leaving a sense of impending chaos.Kelly Younger, the award-winning playwright, explained to an after-show audience Sunday that he wrote this play in four weeks, first seeing the material as comic, then dramatic.Frank, the key to the story, is a child-like comedic figure in Act 1, where he becomes the comedy relief to Brian and Amanda?s financial worries, but his circumstances grow tragically child-like in Act 2 n and the catastrophic event that ends the first act did not occur to Younger until the evening before the first reading of the play, after he completed those four weeks of writing. The play shows how important it can be to keep those creative impulses coming.Denise Cormier?s Amanda lets us follow the thoughts of a woman who carries a secret with her for most of the play, letting it out only when she is at the end of her rope. Brendan Powers? Brian works to keep Amanda on track and Frank under control, trying to stay nice until he blows up at the enormity of what?s happened to them all.Richard McElvain?s Frank represents the force of unreason, wallpapering the house with post-it notes listing the little problems that he faces, demanding his own way and trying to bully his daughter and son-in-law into doing what he wants n and incredibly he?s also a dancer. His cowboy movie sidekick dance in Act 1 provides a rare comic treat and his final dance moves end Act 2 on a note of tragedy.?Tender” runs though July 25 at Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Manin St. Performances are Wednesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 3 p.m. and Sunday performances at 4 p.m. Tickets are $37, with senior citizen and student tickets available for $32. Reservations and further information are available at (978) 281-4433 or www.gloucesterstage.org.