I was a little surprised when I saw that the Clayton Community Theatre planned to produce a stage version of the film The Graduate. Why bother when you have the movie, much loved as it is by thousands, maybe millions? Where do you find someone to play Benjamin Braddock who is not Dustin Hoffman? Mrs. Robinson who is not Anne Bancroft? How do you reproduce on a stage the great camera moves and framing of experienced theatre director but first-time film director Mike Nichols?

Perhaps that question should be asked of Terry Johnson, the playwright who wrote the stage version, adapted both from the novel by Charles Webb and from the screenplay also adapted from the novel by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry. We do get a few things in the play from the novel that the screenplay did not use, and Johnson added some new scenes of his own. 

But it is still the story of depressed new college graduate Benjamin, his affair with the wife of his father’s law partner Mrs. Robinson, and his love for Elaine Robinson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson. 

The play begins in Benjamin’s bedroom, where he sits depressed on his bed in a wetsuit, rejecting the pleas of his parents to join the graduation party they are giving downstairs in his honor. Various guests wander through to greet him. One of those guests, when he is alone, changing out of his wetsuit, is Mrs. Robinson. So begins the seduction, consummated later in the room Benjamin reserves at the Taft Hotel, with much activity under the blankets on the bed. (Did that bed actually rotate, or was it the movements of the couple that made it appear to rotate?)

Benjamin’s parents and Mr. Robinson encourage Benjamin to have a date with Elaine Robinson. Mrs. Robinson forbids it, and Benjamin doesn’t want to. Eventually he gives in, arranging a terrible evening including a stop at a strip club where he behaves abominably. As  Elaine flees in tears, Benjamin realizes what a sweetheart she is and what an ass he has been, pursues her, kisses her, and tells her he loves her. 

Continuing as in the movie, he pursues her over the strenuous objections of her parents, now including her father, hatchet in hand, having learned about Benjamin’s affair with his wife. Eventually all wind up in a room in the church where Elaine’s wedding to a med student is taking place. In  the conversations — mostly angry arguments — in the room in the church, Elaine has more to say than I remember her saying in the movie. What she says explains and justifies her decision to leave with Benjamin.

Unfortunately, playwright Johnson found no stage equivalent for the thrills of Benjamin’s little red sports car burning up the highways to find Elaine’s wedding and stop it and of his scream behind the glass in the balcony of the church. But Johnson cleverly does grant the couple a more amusing and happier ending than staring blankly ahead while riding on a bus.

Director Rob Corbett helped the cast over the script’s difficulties and made his own interpretation clear. Joey Franks II covers the full range of young Benjamin Braddock’s bumpy introduction to postgraduate life. Jessica Johns Kelly makes Mrs. Robinson her own creation with a strong and well-imagined performance. Alex Alderson maintains the comic touch in the outrage of the wronged husband Mr. Robinson. Sarah Vallo makes Elaine Robinson an attractive, intelligent, and articulate young woman. Jack Abels’ Mr. Braddock is a wise guide to son Benjamin in his many troubles, and Tracy Murphy makes Mrs. Braddock an observant and caring wife and mother. Annie Bossi had fun as a friendly stripper, a partygoer, and a wedding guest. David Eiben is both the hotel clerk and a psychiatrist. Dennis Crump is a partygoer, bartender, and priest. Mike Clay and Sean Monarch are both partygoers and patrons at the bar, and Mary Klein is another partygoer and wedding guest. All bring the needed reality and depth to the scenes they play.

Kelsey Belt serves as Stage Manager and Assistant Director. Director Corbett and Tim Kelly designed the set, which makes ingenious use of doors on two levels. Mary Klein is the Props Master, Jean Heckmann designed costumes, Eric Wennlund designed lighting, and director Corbett designed sound. Marilyn Albert-Hack is the Producer.

This stage version of The Graduate is not the equal of the film, but Clayton Community Theatre allows us to make the comparison.

—Bob Wilcox

Photo by John Lamb
From the left, Jessica Johns Kelly as Mrs. Robinson, Joey Franks II as Benjamin Braddock, and Sarah Vallo as Elaine Robinson in The Graduate