THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 11, 1996 TAG: 9601090090
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Tennessee Williams' play ``Sweet Bird of Youth'' presents any number of challenges that would daunt many fine professional performers, but the Little Theatre of Norfolk attacks this turgid tale of sex and death vigorously, to say the least.
One could also say that they treat the script with no more subtlety then it deserves.
The show offers the dubious appeal of loud and intense soul-baring, and those who judge acting by energetic displays of intense feelings will revel in its strident passages. In between the florid emoting, the characters take a break from wallowing in a muddy mixture of self-pity, self-absorption, self-hate and self-love to demonstrate convincingly how world weary they are.
Chance Wayne, a pretty boy whose looks took him from a small town on the Florida Gulf to the fringes of Broadway and Hollywood, comes home in the temporary but lucrative company of one Alexandra del Lago, an aged, alcoholic, drug dependent movie queen.
Chance, worried at age 29 about the imminent fading of his male beauty, hopes to win back the love of his boyhood, Heavenly Finley. Heavenly is the daughter of the racist politician Boss Finley, who so despises Wayne that he has threatened to have him castrated.
Now that's an especially meaningful threat to level against a gigolo, so maybe it's because Wayne really does love Heavenly that he sticks around. Maybe he's just so arrogant that he thinks he can get away with anything in a town where he was once widely adored and admired.
Maybe Chance is acting out some half-suppressed wish for self-destruction, brought on by revulsion at the blackmailing, venal manipulator he has become.
Odds are just as good that he's bored himself stiff with the long, contrived attempts at a lyrical monologues with which the author saddled him, or that the sum of all the similarly tedious, archly poetical speeches delivered by just about everyone in the play - predictably in a single spotlight, predictably staring out over the audience - does as much to paralyze him as the mix of drugs and drink he wolfs down.
The performers shouldn't shoulder blame for this welter of verbal cliches and of cliched acting. Every one of these leading players has done conspicuously better work in other plays, and director Leslie Draper staged a memorable ``Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' not too long ago.
Monty Mason who was taciturn and interesting in that producation, plays Chance. Connie J. Wakefield, who earlier this year made a promising local debut in ``Weekend Comedy,'' has the role of Alexandra.
Another able cast member from ``Weekend Comedy,'' Lauren Leah Ruehring, gets to sob a lot as Heavenly. Frank McCaffery, every local director's favorite villain, bludgeons the cartoon character of Boss Finley to large, loud life. McCaffery has rarely been well utilized since ``Rose Cottages'' two years ago. Some clever director should cast him in a role utterly unlike the type he is always being given, and let him stretch a bit. The results could be interesting and rewarding all around.
Carol Wright's brief appearances as Finley's mistress Miss Lucy have a delightfully delicate quality. The rest of the supporting players give the impression that there had been a lot of cousins in their ancestry who did more than kiss.
The director also designed the set, which like Jim Loria's lighting supported the play effectively.
``Sweet Bird of Youth'' isn't written any worse than most television soap operas, and they certainly have their audience. It should find one as well. Still, it's pretty clear why this was Williams' next to last commercial success and why it has been considered to mark the beginning of his decline as a playwright. ILLUSTRATION: AT A GLANCE
What: ``Sweet Bird of Youth,'' by Tennesee Williams.
When: 8 p.m. today through Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, 8 p.m.
Jan. 19 and 20, 2:30 p.m. Jan. 21.
Where: Little Theatre of Norfolk, 801 Claremont Ave.
Tickets: 627-8551.
by CNB