Last night, we caught the Reps latest offering, 2 Pianos 4 Hands. This semi-biographical work by Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt tells the story of these two piano protegees as they grow into their craft. This two-actor play follows the two protagonists from age eleven, where they are first learning how to play the piano, to age seventeen, where they apply to enter higher education conservatories. In addition to playing the leads, the actors do double duty by also playing their parents, teachers and the other adults in their lives. Like a tag team the actors alternate from playing their protagonist to the other lead’s support group. Both Dykstra and Greenblatt led parallel lives. Lives that crossed through the years at recitals and competitions.
This comedy has a melancholy ending, with both young men being brutally turned down from their respective applications for higher learning. Sure, they are both gifted and accomplished pianists, just not accomplished enough. The play concludes with the two men drunkenly accepting that while they are not two of the greatest piano players in the world, the country, or even the city (Toronto), they can claim to be two of the greatest pianists in the neighborhood.
