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Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if instead you lived in a different decade, say the 1930s? After watching the Fullerton Theatre Arts Department production of the Brighton Beach Memoirs, a comedy by Neil Simon, I would say there s hardly a difference.

True, fundamentally, the 30s were different: The United States was engaged in a world war, baseball, not basketball was the nations sport, and teenagers transported themselves from place to place using things called legs.

But through Memoirs, a satirical homage to his youthful .years growing up in Brooklyn, Simon doesn't just take us back to a time when a car s only color is. black, but also to a time when youngsters still rebel against their parents, when single mothers still try to balance raising their children and earning a living, and when pubescent boys are still fascinated with the techniques of self love.

Though Memoirs had its moments, after it was finished I didn't want more. The show felt more like a 30-minute sitcom, rather than an hour-and-a-half play-that's probably because the Pulitzer Prize winner is part one of a three-part series of plays dedicated to Simon's life.

Memoirs focused almost exclusively on character development with hardly any action (The play only needed one backdrop). I'm all for character development, but without a balance of plot to move the characters along, I'm left disenchanted.

Now I didn't say I was dissatisfied with the case, the set designer, the director, Chuck Ketter, or anyone else. involved tn the production. I said I was dissatisfied with Simon's lack of a story line.

The performances themselves were memorable. I could really feel the plight of Blanche Morton (played by Patricia Velazquez), the helpless widow trying to prove her self worth to both herself and to her daughters.

I felt bad for Blanche's sister, Kate Jerome (played by Constance Adler-Galloway), who had to bear the burden of taking care of the families home and spirits all by herself. Perhaps the reason these performances had such resonance is because the personalities the depicted from the '30s are still relevant to the people we encounter today.

Powerful performances were also delivered by Charlotte Samuels, Casey Gates and Tom Adams.

Surely the moment of the evening was when Simon's adolescent rendition of himself, a quirky thirteen-year-old named Eugene Jerome (played by Rudy Martinez), literally climaxed after being told by his brother, Stanley (played by Ryan Baldwin), that masturbation is such a natural part of life that even fathers did it when they were teenagers.

Kudos also goes to the set designers and crew-they literally fit a two-story house into a theater the size of a lecture hall.

Overall, Memoirs was an enjoyable experience.

Despite the lack of plot, you still leave with a feel-good attitude.

To me, however, a Pulitzer Prizewinning play should do more than make you say "awww," it must compel you to say, "Damn, that was a Pulitzer-prize winning play!