Nostalgia Bowl

A A A Comments By Jef Otte Thursday, Apr 28 2011

Bev Newcomb-Madden can relate to the housewife-protagonist of While We Were Bowling. The play (which she’s directing) follows the travails of a traditional family unit in Buffalo, New York, as the cheerfully kitschy ’50s melt into the psychedelic ’60s. “I was a young housewife, too, when this was all going on, so I know the period very well, and I certainly know the frustrations — how we as young mothers acquiesced to a patriarchal society,” she says.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Not, she adds, that the play itself would put it in those terms. “It has serious overtones,” Newcomb-Madden observes, “but it’s a comedy. The family has bowling in common, and that’s kind of a hook for the transition within the framework of the family. The mother’s a TV mother in a bit of an alcoholic haze, and she eventually finds herself, and her children do, too. So it’s metaphor for the times, but it’s also a great time.” As for Newcomb-Madden’s own experience with those times, she jokes, “We just hoped to hell our kids wouldn’t turn out to be druggies.”

While We Were Bowling opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Aurora Fox Theatre, 9900 East Colfax Avenue, and continues through May 8; for tickets ($18-$24), showtimes or more information, go to www.aurorafox.org or call 303-739-1970.
Fridays, Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: April 8. Continues through May 8, 2011

Get the Events Newsletter

What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.