He is a 41-year-old Jewish immigrant, born in Lithuania,
whose family suffered immensely during the First World War. He’s still
suffering from the emotional scars of his earlier years.
She’s a 31-year-old spinster, living in conservative Lebanon,
Missouri, as a member of one of the town’s wealthier families. Her progressive
views, however, have caused local society to regard her as somewhat suspect and
unconventional.
Despite
their mismatched, odd couple duality, Matt Friedman (Robert Hockenberry) fell in
love with Sally Talley (Rebekah Hukill) the previous summer and has since
written her everyday since from his home in St. Louis. Other than a single
written reply, Sally has done little to encourage her ardent suitor with the
hope of a romantic relationship.
The play, which won its author a Pulitzer Prize for Drama
in 1980, is billed as a romantic comedy and starts off unconventionally with Matt
intoning an introductory monologue, calling the play a waltz, stating its precise
runtime of 97 minutes, pointing out the set is a dilapidated Victorian
boathouse built along the river and other relevant, sometimes obvious, tidbits.
The first hint of comedy comes after Matt wraps up the
monologue, then launches into a rapid retelling of same “for the benefit of
audience members who may have arrived late” reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan’s
penchant for patter songs. While the monologue has the feel of a peculiar
theatrical device, it does add a frolicsome freshness to the play’s opening moments.
After being rudely rebuffed by Sally’s Jewish-prejudiced
family at the manor house (on July 4, 1944, the date the play is set) Matt
retreats to the boathouse, devised by set designer, Sabrina Hykes-Davis, with
effective suggestions of a riparian context. Sally arrives and is annoyed to
see her rejected suitor there to greet her.
As Matt, Hockenberry is adamant about his desire to soften
Sally’s heart and mind. As persistent as a water trickle that forms a stream
over time, he is not overly aggressive but stays steadfast in his goal of
winning her over throughout the play. As his perfect other half, Sally, he
realizes, is the answer to many of his
emotional needs.
Sally,
on the other hand, seems resigned to the fact that she’ll never marry and the
two verbally spar. Aware of the cultural and religious differences that undermine
their relationship, these two strong-willed individuals who share the same existential
loneliness jostle and cajole. Matt pushes and presses while Sally rejects and
rebuffs. Things even get a bit heated to the point that a physical skirmish
results in Sally biting Matt’s arm.
It’s
only when Matt opens up to Sally about his hidden past, a sensitive issue for
the reflective accountant, that Sally begins to open up to Matt
emotionally. She, too has a hidden
secret that she slowly, cautiously relates.
Conveniently,
the intimate confines of the South Park Theatre and its cozy stage appropriately
lend themselves to the appreciation of this relationship-centered two-person
romance. Director Melissa Hill Grande creatively uses the limited space to give
the stage a much larger expanse that seems possible.
Dialect
coach Lisa Bonsavage leaves her stamp on the narrative by tutoring Hockenberry on
the niceties of a German accent and Hukill on the vagaries of the patois of a
Southern belle.
In
his introduction, Matt promises the audience a play performed as a waltz. A
long time coming, the waltz is preceded by Sturm und Drang more akin to a csardas
or a mazurka. But when the waltz comes, their lovers’ emotional pas de deux
seems preordained as they fall into one another’s arms to begin life anew.
The
getting there is the magic and narrative sparkle of theater craft and solid
playwriting, which unfolds slowly yet inevitably like a blossom on a summer
rose. Watch for it and be swept away by poesy of it all.
Talley’s
Folly is at the South Park Theatre, 1801 Brownsville Road in
South Park through May 31. For tickets and more information, go to www.SouthParkTheatre.com or by calling 412-831-8552.
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