Horton Foote's
The Orphans' Home Cycle: Part Three
The Hartford Stage
www.hartfordstage.org
Through October 24, 2009, playing in repertory
Review by Donna
Bailey-Thompson
The Story of a
Family
Act 1: 1918 * Act 2: Cousins, 1925 * Act 3: The Death of Papa, 1928
By presenting the world premiere of Horton Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle in a serialized format, following Horace Robedaux from age 12 in 1910 to age 30 in 1928, meeting his original and acquired family members over the years, it was inevitable that audiences became intimates of the family, eager to pick up where the story had last left off in 1917, and reluctant to say goodbye in 1928 to folks admired or troubling, wondering how they coped when the stock market crashed the following year and then how they made it through The Great Depression.
The opening of Act 1, Part Three, was somber. It was 1918, the world-wide Spanish Influenza epidemic that killed more than 50 million, had struck Horace's world in fictitious Harrison, Texas, about 60 miles southwest of Houston. A steady rain fell on mourners holding umbrellas, walking single file across the stage, their hesitation gait unchanging except when pausing to place a small bouquet in an open grave. At Horace and Elizabeth's new home (a gift from her father, Mr. Vaughn) the happiest faces were those admiring their infant daughter. The flu was not to be denied. Dr. Greene dashed from home to home. Mr. Vaughn and Horace became ill and survived but the adored baby girl did not. The sadness generated by her death suppressed the full joy of the Armistice. Hope won with the birth of a new baby and Brother Vaughn's posturing -- an immature young man who claimed he was ready to set aside childish things.
Act 2, Cousins, gave the audience many reasons to laugh, especially cousins rattling off names and their abbreviated lineage to determine who was and who wasn't a cousin. In Southern style, kinfolks' given names are preceded by how they are related and how close the relationship is (first, second, or if once or twice removed, etc.). Cousin Lewis Higgins was too soddened with intoxicating spirits to keep all the relatives straight; and for the same reason, his legs had a way of giving out. Knowing how to drink elevated a cousin's status. When Horace's mother was hospitalized and not expected to survive surgery, cousins and kissin' cousins swarmed in the waiting room. The sincere efforts of Horace and his mother to bridge the absence of an emotional connection remained unrealized. His sister Lily Dale's emotional development continued rooted in self-absorption.
Act 3, The Death of Papa, had a profound effect upon Horace and the extended family of Vaughns and Robedauxs, as if an anchor had been lifted setting a boat full of people adrift. That metaphor isn't in the script but what Horton Foote leaves out has a way of finding its way into one's subconscious. Part of his genius is letting us know without words what takes place offstage -- and within. When Mrs. Vaughn announced she was giving her son, Brother (as he was known because he was brother to Sister), the significant responsibility of managing his father's estate, the audience groaned. And sure enough, he ran through the money like a drunken sailor which turned out to be prophetic when he declared he was going to become a merchant seaman. When he said, "I can't live up to Papa," that truth came from his soul.
Comic relief was provided by Horace, Jr.'s grandmother who was afraid the boy's love of books meant he would become an alcoholic like his grandfather who read as voraciously as he drank. In real life, Horace, Jr. became the prolific and honored playwright, Horton Foote.
The final line of this magnificent portrait of a sprawling family is a variation on the saying about the only thing we can count on is change: "Don't be too sure about anything in this world."
What audiences could count on was the lyrical shading of the playwright's gifted script, Director Michael Wilson's sensitive interpretation brought to life by the actors who melded into their roles.
After 53 performances, 22 actors, and literally tons of staging, props, and costumes, the company has moved to New York City. There, the collaboration of Hartford Stage and Signature Theatre Company continues when The Orphans' Home Cycle is presented by the Signature Theatre Company from November 5 through March 6, 2010. Horton Foote's saga is destined to captivate new family intimates.
Horton Foote's
The Orphans' Home Cycle: Part Two
The Hartford Stage
www.hartfordstage.org
Through October 24, 2009, playing in repertory
Review by Donna
Bailey-Thompson
The Story of a
Marriage
Unlike the opening of The Story of a Childhood which
featured the magical sliding of sleight-of-hand flats, Part Two
of Horton Foote's "The Orphans' Home Cycle"/The
Story of a Marriage opens with Horace Robedaux, now 22, who is
thinking ahead to marrying. He stands on a bare stage while, one
by one, young ladies in soft dainty dresses twirl, seemingly
unaware of him. To one or two who catch his eye, he reaches out
but they slip away, still twirling. Occasionally, a girl lingers
to pat his arm or offer a scarf, but spins away. This sweet
flirtation, deftly choreographed by Peter Pucci, captures moments
of innocence suspended, temporarily, by the 1912 reality of
Harrison, Texas.
Act I opens in a boarding house. Young men play poker, drink,
gossip, and tease Horace who is getting dressed for his third
date with The Widow Claire (winningly played by Virginia Kull).
Actually, Kull's performance is painfully accurate - the
strain of being mama and papa, the fear of becoming destitute,
the pressure to find a husband who will be good to her children,
Molly (Georgi James, seen earlier as the young Lily Dale) and
Buddy (who played Horace at age 12). Molly and Buddy are typical
kids, precocious, unruly, who could benefit from having a
stepfather. Claire's exasperation with them for letting cats
out of bags - which one of her gentlemen callers they like and
don't like, who gave her a ring, which one is mean to her -
add to her stress (and the audience's chuckles). Her obvious
affection for Horace appears and disappears like sun in a patchy
cloudy sky.
Bill Heck's Horace is tall, good looking, kind, and
dependable. Armed with a sixth grade book education supplemented
by learning, at age 12, how to fend for himself after his daddy
died, he's about to enter business school. "I want to
amount to something," he tells Claire. "I'm
ambitious but I don't know what I'm ambitious
about." Somewhere along the line, he also learned how to
dance well, gracefully. Otherwise, Heck plays Horace close to the
vest. When hurt, he's stoical. The hint of possible happiness
with Claire trips a guarded smile. His small gestures, slight
shifts in posture, provide insight into who he is; his
orphan-like existence fostered caution and resilience without
destroying his innate endearing nature.
Three years later, Act 2 begins, Courtship, and the Vaughn family
is introduced. The evening is warm. The sisters Elizabeth (Maggie
Lacey) and Eliza (Pat Bowie) are on the veranda speculating about
the future and, in particular, Horace. Eliza says she's heard
rumors that he's a wild boy who likes wild women. Elizabeth
says that's not true. She admits, "I like him a
lot." Gathering in the parlor are the stern parents, Mrs.
Vaughn (Hallie Foote) and Mr. Vaughn (James DeMarse), and aunts
Sarah Vaughn (Pamela Payton-Wright) and Lucy (Vaughn) Stewart
(Annalee Jefferies) whose deadpan commentaries amuse: referencing
someone with a less-than-sterling history, "That's one
confession I'd like to have heard!"
When Horace, dressed in a tuxedo, appears unexpectedly at the
veranda, Elizabeth tries not to beam. He left the dance because
Elizabeth wasn't there. Her father had not let her go.
Realizing a suitor is calling, his duty to protect his daughter
shifts into overdrive. He dislikes Horace because he had no
parental guidance while growing up. The father turns up the porch
lamp. After Horace leaves, Elizabeth admits to her sister,
"I'm in love with him." By the end of the play, she
declares, "I'm marrying Horace Robedaux if he asks
me."
By the beginning of Act 3, entitled Valentine's Day, 1917,
but it's actually Christmastime, Elizabeth and Horace (now
25)have been married a year, and she is pregnant. When her
parents threatened her with disownment if she married Horace,
they eloped. Their apartment is modest; a community phone is in
the corridor; they are sad about the family estrangement. But,
their love for one another is strong, steadfast. Horace tells
Elizabeth that for the first time in his life, he is happy.
"I worship you. I thank you for marrying me." She's
glowing. If anyone has a problem, Horace is the go-to guy. A
young neighbor, Bessie Stillman, who often keeps Elizabeth
company, seems to be somewhat mentally challenged. Strongly
portrayed by Virginia Kull who two hours earlier was the
articulate, stressed-out widow Claire, the transformation is
stunning. The growth within Mr. Vaughn (James DeMarse) impresses.
He changes from a tyrannical father who wrote off Horace as a
no-account to a forgiving father who respects his son-in-law more
than his own son. The nuanced skills of actor DeMarse shine
again, as they did as Soll Gauthier in Part 1, Convicts.
Admiration for Horton Foote's writing skills and Michael
Wilson's direction were already high and with Part 2, they
moved up another rung.
Horton Foote's
The Orphans' Home Cycle: Part One
The Hartford Stage
www.hartfordstage.org
Through October 24, 2009, playing in repertory
Review by Donna
Bailey-Thompson
The Story of a Childhood
Superb! The Hartford Stage world premiere of Horton Foote's
"The Orphans' Home Cycle" - Part One, "The
Story of a Childhood" - foretells that Part Two
("Marriage") and Three (..."Family") will
build and deepen the compelling story of Horace's journey
from ages 12 (1902) to 38 (1928).
This elaborate production prompts superlatives. A cast of 22
playing 70 roles wears authentic period costumes (David C.
Woolard), hair and wigs (Mark Adam Rampmeyer). Subtle lighting
design (Rui Rita) enhances the many scenes which dissolve
seamlessly thanks to the engineering legerdemain of scenic
designers Jeff Cowie and David Barber: huge flats glide sideways
and props move forward and back - where stood a boy, now stands a
man.
Responsibility for this dramatic tour de force belongs to
Artistic Director Michael Wilson. He convinced the aging
playwright that the full nine-play cycle Foote had hoped to turn
into nine movies (he and his wife succeeded in bringing five to
the screen) could be staged in repertory. Each of the nine
full-length plays was re-written by Foote to match a playing time
of one hour.The Cycle is co-produced with New York's
Signature Theatre Company where it will play from November to
March.
Horton Foote's scripts suggest that he was light years
distant from being pretentious. A gifted storyteller who eschewed
any tricks, especially maudlin sentimentality, his characters are
multi-dimensional; identification with their human nature
explains one aspect of Foote's popularity. Another is quite
simple: the man could really write.
Act I ("Roots in a Parched Ground" about 60 miles SW of
Houston) opens with the dying of Horace's father whose
excessive drinking alienated his wife. She marries Mr. Davenport
who doesn't drink, smoke, or chew. "He has no
problems," she states, except, as she discovers, he's a
dry drunk with profound control issues and a sullen disposition.
When Mr. Davenport is transferred to Houston, Horace's mother
and younger sister are included but young Horace is left behind.
In effect, he's an orphan. By Act II, age 14,
("Convicts") he's clerking in a scruffy store on a
hardscrabble sugar cane plantation owned by Soll Gautier, an
alcoholic skinflint, who uses cheap convict labor. By Act III
("Lily Dale"), Horace is 20. A planned short visit in
Houston with his self-centered sister and uneasy mother (who
exhausts herself trying to make sure no one does anything that
might upset Mr. Davenport) becomes extended by weeks when Horace
is stricken with malaria. Everyone is relieved when he recovers
enough to leave. Although physically weak, he's mentally
strong and resolved to succeed.
The casting is inspired: Bill Heck (adult Horace), Henry Hodges
(Horace, age 14); James DeMarse (plantation drunk), Annalee
Jefferies (Horace's mother), and Pamela Payton-Wright (Mrs.
Coons) who gives new meaning to "church lady." Michael
Wilson's directing reflects the gentle yet precise cadence of
Horton Foote's script. The result is immersion in
Horace's odyssey - Greek tragedy, Texas style, never hurries,
never drags.
Because scheduling of this three-part cycle, in repertory, is
complex, theatergoers are encouraged to visit
www.hartfordstage.org for ticketing information. Each three-hour
performance includes three short plays and two intermissions.
THIS REVIEW OF PART ONE
WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY http://www.inthespotlightinc.org/
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