Oscar Brodrick Research Paper

1965, in an 8 room New York apartment on Riverside Drive lived a recently divorced man named Oscar Madison. Oscar held a poker game once a week in his apartment for his friends Felix Ungar, Murray, Speed, Roy, and Vinnie. The guys were starting to get a little worried when Felix, who never missed a night of poker in two years never showed for a game. While they were all discussing where he might be, Felix’s wife calls looking for him. See Felix left, after his wife told him she was filing for divorce the next day after 12 years of marriage. A short time later Felix shows up at the poker game and the guys are concerned he may try to commit suicide so they watch him like a hawk. Oscar invited Felix to move in since he had nowhere else to go and they could split the bills plus Oscar was lonely himself. The problem you see is that Oscar is a sloppy, carefree, and disorganized man, whereas Felix is a neat, detailed, and organized man. Day by day for the next three weeks, they start to drive each other crazy. Oscar convinces Felix that they go out on a date
with the two English sisters from upstairs, Cecily and Gwendolyn Pigeon. Felix agrees if he can cook them dinner. Their date night turns into a disaster when the dinner burns and Felix starts crying while chatting about his wife and children. Since dinner was ruined, the girls offer to cook at their apartment and leave to start the preparations. Oscar while gathering the ice and wine finds out Felix does not want to join them, which causes Oscar to lose his temper and kicks Felix out. Oscar’s poker friends criticize him for his treatment to Felix, but a little later Felix and the two sisters’ show up saying he is going to stay with them a few days until he can get his own apartment and back on his feet. After Felix and the girls are gone, the weekly poker game starts, but Oscar shocks them all when he scolds them for dropping a cigar on the floor. The stage is simple but very detailed. The middle right side of the stage, you have the front door and foyer into Oscar’s apartment. Standing in the foyer, you have a door into the kitchen. There are a couple steps down from the foyer into the living room, which has a striped couch, coffee table, and a plaid chair to the left of the couch. To the right of the couch is a desk with a lamp on it and a desk chair. Behind the plaid chair, you have two big windows with blinds that look out over New York City from the 12 floor. There is another chair in front of the windows with a table and lamp and to the right, you have a swinging door into the kitchen. Beside the swinging kitchen door is a mini bar. Upstage in the middle, you have a hall that goes to the bedrooms and another big window. On the left side of the hall is Felix’s bedroom and the entry into the guest bathroom. Beside the guest bathroom is another window and chair. Out in front of the guest bathroom you have a big rug with the kitchen table and four chairs sitting on it, which is where the poker games are held. The lighting is dim, but enough to see during the poker games and date night with the girls but much brighter in the daytime. Murray wears his Cop uniform and the others wear everyday clothes from the 1960s except for date night when Oscar and Felix dress up in their suits and their dates are wearing dresses from the same period. The music is a type of jazz with an upbeat tempo sound that I could most definitely see being around in the 1960s. Before and after the play music is played as well as during set changes when they also drop the curtain. Best friends, Felix Ungar played by Matthew Broderick is a tidy, anxious, and organized person and Oscar Madison played by Nathan Lane is an untidy, happy-go-lucky, disorganized person.
The poker buddies included Murray played by Brad Garrett, who is a NYPD cop. Speed, who is sarcastic, smokes cigars and picks on the others. There is Roy the accountant, who smokes cigarettes and complains about Speeds cigars smelling, and then Vinnie who is calm but henpecked. Cecily Pigeon, who is divorced and Gwendolyn Pigeon who is widowed are the two silly English sisters from upstairs that had a date night with Oscar and Felix. All the actors did a great job with their characters, even Matthew Broderick’s character Felix which was starting to get on my nerves by the play’s ending with the squeaky, nasal voice. The actor playing Roy seemed to walk too rigid to be believable, but Nathan Lane played his character, Oscar
great. I had watched The Odd Couple TV show from the 70’s and liked it but this was a different experience. I really enjoyed it and laughed quite a few times. I see that divorce was a big issue starting in the 60s and that people had different ways to get through it. Some laughed, cried, or ignored the circumstance were others drank or keep busy so as not to think about the divorce. However, at some point, everyone needs the help of another just like Oscar and Felix to get through troubled times.