Family Guide for On Golden Pond |
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Updated: January 19, 2005 Because audiences have different opinions of what may be suitable for our younger patrons, the following information is provided to assist you when deciding what is appropriate for your family. |
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Genre: Comedy/Drama. Versions available to preview: The popular 1981 film version featuring Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane Fonda differs from the stage version in several aspects-the stage version focuses more on the relationship between the old man and the young boy, rather than the daughter. Production length: Act I is an hour and ten minutes. Act II is forty five minutes. There is one fifteen minute intermission. Synopsis: Norman Thayer, a cranky 80-year-old, makes his annual pilgrimage with his wife Ethel to their summer cottage. Their solitude is interrupted when Chelsea, their daughter, arrives with her boyfriend Bill, and his son Billy in tow. They leave the boy with the Thayers while they go on vacation. Norman and Billy dislike one another and it looks as though this summer (which it seems may be Norman's last) will be a depressing experience. Gradually, they warm to one another, with the help of books and fishing, and as Billy begins to come out of his shell, Norman and Ethel recover a bit of their own youthfulness. Sexual content: Bill asks Norman if he and Chelsea may sleep in the same bed under his roof, though they are not married. In his comedic, dry wit way, Norman goes on about it, and phrases such as "I'd be delighted to have you abusing my daughter under my own roof," "the room where I first violated her mother," "you could do it right here on the hearth," are used. An elderly lesbian couple are talked about. Skinny dipping, brothel, nude, suck face, flashing, mentioned. Language: Substances: None of note. Violence: Characters joke about "murdering his ex-wife," "did you drown the kid?" Death is much talked about, as the elderly couple face their age. |
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