ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603270014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Three Tall Women," requires some forbearance on the part of the audience.
That's because the first act is a deliberate - almost contrived - setup for the second act, in which the payoff occurs.
And, boy, is it worth the wait.
Mill Mountain Theatre's production of this virtuosic piece of writing is beautifully directed by Jack Beasley and brilliantly performed by its three women, keenly and delicately gathering every ounce of energy in its first half for the unleashing of its second.
Albee's three women are nameless but quite distinct: First, there's the oldest woman, played by Avril Gentles, who is dying in her lavish home in the care of a middle-aged woman, Barbara Farrar. The third woman - the actress is Lisa Gunn - is a young lawyer who has apparently come to help put the dying woman's disorganized affairs in order.
The oldest woman suffers from senile dementia, but wants to talk. She can't even remember what she can't remember, she realizes with astonished glee. The middle-aged woman only wants for her cantankerous patient to be as comfortable as possible physically and mentally. So, she reassures her, "You remember everything, I think. You just can't always bring it to mind."
The third character is the sand Albee deliberately places in the greased machinery of this tedious but fairly peaceful process of dying. The young woman won't even indulge the dying woman's desire to lop one year off her age - she's 92 - or her tendency to repeat herself. The young lawyer is, in fact, almost unbelievably lacking in sympathy for her elderly client.
She has just begun to soften slightly toward the old lady when a cataclysmic event occurs. Gunn tries to convey this subtle shift, but it just isn't subtle in the writing. She goes from coldly sarcastic to awkwardly solicitous in mere minutes.
The act ends, and the audience is left to wonder at Albee's intentions: Who is this young woman, and what is she doing in this play?
She is, as the second act demonstrates, A Perspective - one of three on a life. She is the dying woman as foolish youth who denies death and refuses to acknowledge how life - that thing that happens to us while we're busy making plans - can destroy the most noble intentions.
The middle-aged woman is Another Perspective, and the dying woman the third. Together, they reassemble a life for each other, for all the parts of a single self, and Albee proves with an artistry that borders on magic that at least three perspectives are merited. Hell, I think he could have given us "Eight Tall Women," but I am still young and foolish and he, obviously, is not.
Farrar, who gave us the terrific Grace of "Grace and Glorie," is terrific again. And Gunn will make this character work - she certainly has no trouble with the second act.
Gentles is, well, almost beyond description. She is an ace with comedy and beautiful on the low notes. Her frustrated sobs as she struggles to recall are deeply affecting, as is her declaration that "I've shrunk. I used to be tall."
Albee restores to his character all of the parts forgotten or lost over the years - the ultimate death with dignity. This production of his play is a class act with the power to make us confront not just death issues, but life issues, and in less than two hours contributes something toward helping us make peace with all of it.
``Three Tall Women'' runs through March 31 at Theatre B of Mill Mountain Theatre. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. $10, $12, $20. 342-5740 or (800) 317-6455.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB