The New Yorker

The Lucky One

May 2017

Alan Alexander Milne’s play premièred in 1922, just a year before the introduction of his Christopher Robin series of light verse, which would lead to the enormous popularity of Winnie-the-Pooh. In the Mint’s production, Robert David Grant plays Gerald, the Farringdon family’s golden boy—a bit shallow, perhaps, but oozing charm and good will. Ari Brand plays his older brother, Bob (“Poor Bob,” they all say), bitter, dark, and in more than a spot of bother as the play begins. Pamela Carey (Paton Ashbrook) is the woman caught in the middle of this long-simmering sibling rivalry. Milne navigates through bright, silly golf jokes to serious issues of responsibility and regret. The director, Jesse Marchese, offsets the play’s tendency toward melodrama with an emphasis on honest emotion, especially in the big confrontation between the brothers in Act III, which reveals unexpected truths and complexities in both characters.