Last Holdout

In William Mastrosimone’s play ‘A Stone Carver,’ a proud Sicilian artisan fights for old country values.

By: Susan Van Dongen
   In William Mastrosimone’s play A Stone Carver, the tough, big-hearted, Italian- American father character carves statuary for grand old buildings — like Philadelphia’s City Hall — as well as angels and gargoyles for neo-Gothic churches and cathedrals.
   Agostino, the father, has built his own little empire, putting his children through college, keeping a steady roof over their heads by working with a hammer and chisel.
   Unfortunately, the era of artfulness in construction is over, and so are many of Agostino’s treasured ways of life. He’s watched the world change, seen his government — for which he feels so much pride and patriotism — grow ugly. With the changing times, the government’s loyalty to the individual citizen has eroded as much as the attention to craftsmanship in building.
   Passage Theatre presents A Stone Carver by Mr. Mastrosimone, a powerful drama about a conflict sparked by a son’s commitment to progress, a father’s respect for the past and the shifting values between generations. Directed by Robert Kalfin and featuring Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years) in the role of Agostino, A Stone Carver will be performed at the Mill Hill Playhouse in Trenton May 25 to June 18.
   Though it was written more than 20 years ago, the play tells a story that could be ripped from today’s headlines of eminent domain and urban redevelopment.
   At the start of the play, Agostino has boarded himself up in the house he built with his own hands. The electricity and water has been turned off, but the old man is hanging tough with a stash of food and a shotgun. He is standing up to an eminent domain order issued by the town, which wants to build a new highway off-ramp to ease the rush hour traffic. Agostino is the only property owner holding out against the government, which wants to clear the land.
   Not even his brothers or a priest can persuade Agostino to leave and, as a last resort, the family has invited Raff, the estranged son, to try and talk sense to his father.
   "The son returns home to disarm his father," Mr. Mastrosimone says. "He goes there with a mission — to get that shotgun. The son brings his fiancée, Janice, who the father has never met, hoping that her presence will make the old man behave himself, which he doesn’t."
   Over the course of the evening, the two men debate the past and the future, playing out an old conflict between Agostino’s old world values and his son’s American way of doing business.
   The play, which premiered at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1987 under the title The Understanding, was inspired by an experience in Mr. Mastrosimone’s own family, when a bowling alley owned by his father was appropriated in an eminent domain action for redevelopment that never took place.
   "In order to understand the story, it helps to know my family’s background," Mr. Mastrosimone says. "My father was a real rags-to-riches story. He was offered a scholarship to Drexel but he didn’t have the money to go. So he worked as many jobs as he could, worked day and night to make ends meet. Then he saw a piece of land on the outskirts of Trenton. He borrowed his father’s life savings to get it — he took a real risk. On this land, he built his little empire, building by building. He built a couple of office buildings, the house we lived in and eventually he built a bowling alley, an ice cream stand and a warehouse.
   "Then, in 1969, a couple of guys from the state pulled up to the house and they told him the property was condemned — they were going to put a road through — and they were going to give him market value for the land," he continues. "So, in slow motion, the family began to realize the dark side of the American dream. Under eminent domain, the state can take anything. What you think you own, you really don’t own. What you have a right to is ‘just compensation,’ but they determine what ‘just’ is."
   He says he studied eminent domain, even researching the Latin origins of the phrase which goes back to the Middle Ages and basically translates to "supreme lordship."
   "In other words, it comes from a time when kings owned everything and everyone else was just a tenant," Mr. Mastrosimone says. "How did this come to be? Who wrote this into American law? Which generation? Certainly not the founding fathers."
   Moved by his family’s experience, Mr. Mastrosimone wrote A Stone Carver in the ’70s — in fact, it was the first play he wrote.
   "People liked the play but were puzzled by the politics," he says. "How many times did you hear the term ’eminent domain’ back in the ’70s? But it’s more relevant nowadays, since the Supreme Court has extended the definition. In fact, they made it worse because now they’re including economic development (as a reason to take over property). It really is a little piece of leftover tyranny and everybody is powerless."
   Over the last 20 years, the playwright has seen great success writing for the stage and screen, including TNT cable network’s Into the West, the award-winning adaptation of his play Bang Bang You’re Dead, which aired on Showtime, and the films Extremities and The Beast. His most recent work seen at Passage in 2003 was The Afghan Women. It’s available to every college and university to do as a fund-raiser for Afghan orphans through International Orphan Care.
   Mr. Mastrosimone lives in Newtown, Pa., with his wife, Sharon, and their five children. He says under certain conditions he approves of eminent domain — for example, the nation’s highway system largely relied on it to lay our interstates across the land.
   "There is a good side, but the dark side remains to be fixed," Mr. Mastrosimone says. "When you buy somebody out of a house, the owner should have a right to negotiate, because a house is something sacred, a treasure trove of memories. You should negotiate and if that breaks down, you should go to court, let a jury of your peers decide. But with eminent domain, there is no court, just the state.
   "However, you can’t call this a political play — it’s a family play about a father and a son, and eminent domain is in the background," he continues. "It’s really all about stone. You look at these beautiful old statues in churches and other places and you wonder, is that poured or is that plaster? Most of them were hand-chiseled by little Michelangelos, like Agostino. And the man himself is stony — as tough as the stone he chisels."
A Stone Carver by William Mastrosimone, directed by Robert Kalfin, will be staged by Passage Theatre Company at Mill Hill Playhouse, Front and Montgomery streets, Trenton, May 25-June 18. Performances: Thurs.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2, 8 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m. Tickets cost $25. For information, call (609) 392-0766. On the Web: www.passagetheatre.org