See Rock City

by Arlene Hutton

July 28 - August 8, 2010

Box Office

413-354-7771

Reviewed by Donna Bailey-Thompson

The audience was ready to bring back the actors for a third encore. Hugging this perfect cast would not have been appropriate, but continuing to applaud was the only way we could release our collective admiration and our thanks for the privilege of being not merely entertained but emotionally touched by their performance. The bottom line is that we cared about these people, we were concerned about their struggles, charmed by the different ways their devotion to one another was expressed. Parts of us had known parts of them.

What surprised me is that although I had a vague recollection of seeing See Rock City performed a few years ago, this new production’s glow made me doubt .I had seen the play before. So, I retrieved the old review. (For the 2005 review, see below.) That review is complimentary but not glowing. There’s an intrinsic magic with this cast, starting with the skill of Allison McLemore (May) and Joel Ripka (Raleigh) and the chemistry they generate. The two additions, Carole Monferdini (Mrs. Gill), as May’s even keel mother, and Susanne Marley (reprising her 2005 role as Mrs. Brummett) as Raleigh’s outspoken, alarmist mother ease into the cast as if they’d always been here. What we experienced was the imperfectness of families performed perfectly. They seemed real because they were brought to life by skilled acting.

Only during the talk-back did we learn the production was not perfect. From the front row corner seat at stage right, a theatergoer said actors could not be seen when they were positioned near the back wall of the porch. This impediment did not dampen the theatergoer’s appreciation of the performance: “I don’t know how you get actors like this!” Artistic Director Byam Stevens cited the lure of a quality script; a good director, Jay Stratton (making his professional directorial debut); and Chester Theatre Company’s excellent reputation for presenting productions of high quality.

Anticipation of the final play of The NibrocTrilogy, Gulf View Drive (August 11-22) generates bittersweet emotions – eagerness to re-immerse in May and Raleigh’s world but sad to say s’long. Thanks to playwright Arlene Hutton’s deceptively simple script, the structural bones of this story will have become – without our awareness – part of us.

As Reviewed FIVE YEARS AGO in August 2005

by Donna Bailey-Thompson

Chester’s Miniature Theatre mounts plays that are not cookie-cutter fare and which are appreciated by discerning theatergoers. Following Thursday’s matinee (a full house), the applause continued long after the four actors took their bows.

"See Rock City” by Arlene Hutton is a straightforward slice of life that within 85 minutes, spans the final months of World War II from just before V-E Day through V-J Day and the aftermath when returning veterans re-entered civilian life. May, a school principal,(Eliza Baldi, appropriately tense) and Raleigh, a fledgling writer (naturally engaging Steve Kazee) are young newlyweds, very much in love, who live in May’s parents’ home in rural Kentucky. Her mother, Mrs. Gill (Kathy Lee Hart) is warmly supportive; his mother, Mrs. Brummett (Susanne Marley) who stops by occasionally, is negative, prickly. Not seen are May’s father, a master carpenter, and May’s brother who is fighting overseas. An absorbing story unfolds on the front cantilevered porch that serves as a thrust stage, its sturdy construction suggests the unseen father’s expertise, and earns kudos for the set designed (by Regina Garcia) that refutes the theater’s physical dimensions.

As the second play of a trilogy, “See Rock City” does stand alone, but some regional information and back story can aid understanding. The play’s title is the actual advertising slogan that was painted on hundreds of barns in the Southeast to attract tourists to a rock garden atop Tennessee’s Lookout Mountain. When May and Raleigh met on “Last Train to Nibroc,” Raleigh was headed to New York to be a writer. Instead he followed May to Kentucky.

Playwright Hutton’s dialog resurrects the travails of “the home front” – rationing, anxiety about family members’safety, prejudices against those not in uniform – and the love that binds. Under the savvy direction of Victor Maog, the fine ensemble cast energizes the crises and sweetness of 1945, and stimulates eagerness to see what happens next to May and Raleigh in Ms. Hutton’s followup play.

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