THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410110098
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The hoary truism pointing out that scholastic theater exists primarily for the education of its participants can never be overused.
At Virginia Wesleyan College, the young cast members of ``Trifles'' and ``F.M.'' were clearly not veterans of the stage. There was even a native charm to their efforts, which would have been less appealing judged by the standards reserved for experienced actors.
One can forgive, for example, the actress who couldn't wholly suppress her own amusement at the events unfolding on the stage. One can forgive the Acting by Significant Glances and the sledgehammer caricatures.
One can forgive the unshakeable adolescent awkwardness, the stiff mock seriousness of tense impersonating adults that was reminiscent of a toddler trying on a parent's oversized shoes.
One forgives and perhaps forgets because such are dramatic growing pains, and because there is more than dramatic technique to be learned from these shows.
``Trifles,'' adapted by Susan Glaspell from her short story, was an old standby before any of those acting on this stage were born. Today, we see its pro-feminist outlook.
In an isolated Nebraska farmhouse, perhaps a century ago, a county attorney, a sheriff and the neighbor who found the homeowner's body look for clues to the man's death. While the man search the grounds, the wives of the neighbor and the sheriff wait in the kitchen.
The women talk about trifles, remark the patronizing men who are occupied with weighty questions of evidence and motive. The wives chat about the housekeeping of the woman suspected of slipping a rope around her sleeping husband's neck and strangling him.
The trifling talk of the two women reveals to them, but not to their husbands, a sordid tale of emotional abuse. Two generations before the not dissimilar ``Burning Bed,'' Glaspell penned a tight little tale of domestic horror.
One hopes that the irony is not lost upon the students. In ``Trifles,'' revelation of a motive could doom the suspect, because without the motive a jury would be reluctant to convict a woman on circumstantial evidence alone.
The three men were played by C.J. Vogt, Steven Filer Munley and Jim Keitel. Charmaine Cowell and Emily Ann Meyer played the wives.
Ronulus Linney's far more recent satire ``F.M.'' also touches upon women's issues, though only tangentially.
The scene is ``a seminar room at a small Southern college.'' A woman who teaches creative writing and two of her three students begin in the course.
One of the students is a giddy, gushing housewife, the other a man-hating divorcee. The speech and writing of each is riddled with cliches.
When the third student arrives, the first two are shocked. He is a self-admitted ``hick'' half-drunk who plops down on the tables a ream of transcripts. When they find out what the two-letter title of his Oedipal short story stands for, they storm out in disgust. Of course, his writing alone shows real merit.
It would be encouraging to think that a few students recognized themselves in the self-righteous, all-knowing divorcee, not because their life histories are similar to hers but because there is little arrogance as unbounded as that of the self-satisfied undergraduate.
Certainly the loudest laughs of the enthusiastic audience went to Leola Abraham, who played that vengeful woman with abundant energy and over-the-top fervor.
Jami McManema played the other student with the commitment that can bespeak real ability, and Joyce Howell showed genuine potential in her calm, realistic approach to the role of the teacher. John Adams III was a delightfully sympathetic Buford Bullough, a sort of latter-day Tom Wolfe.
Bentley Anderson directed both shows, with sets by Jarold D. Pope and directing assistance from Cynthia Badger. by CNB