THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605210157
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Preview
SOURCE: BY MONTAGUE GAMMON, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 78 lines
The witches that fly through conventional children's theater never seem any more real than do the dragons and sorcerers that populate those ancient lands of fairy tales. A very different sort of witch, whose home is the very real, very rural American Midwest in the far away time of the Great Depression, is the subject of an unconventional, lyrically written children's play to be produced this weekend at First Colonial High.
It's children's theater that carries meaning for all ages. It's a story in which the children are wiser than the adults.
It's a show about outcasts, which should appeal to many a teen wondering just where he or she fits into the world.
It's a show about tenderness, which should appeal to plenty of budding young romantics.
It's about a tomboy foundling known simply as Girl; about the deaf boy, Tuc, whose insight is unhampered by his disability; and about a strange, lonely recluse whom fearful townsfolk want to blame for every mishap they can't fathom.
``Mother Hicks'' is the name of the central character and of the play, which author Susan Seder based on witch stories collected by the Federal Writer's Project during the Depression. The mute Tuc narrates passages of the show in sign language, which a chorus interprets. (At First Colonial, all productions are signed.)
In the story that Zeder wrote, scarlet fever claimed the lives of children around Ware, Ill., in 1925. The parents blamed the local midwife, claiming that she had given her own little girl to the devil. Mother Hicks, whose child had succumbed to the fever like the rest, and who had been widowed, withdrew to a lean-to dwelling she constructed outside town.
She is a healer of animals and people who has become a scapegoat for everything that happens that the local folk cannot understand.
The play picks up her tale when her life interacts with that of Girl, an abandoned child whose upbringing has passed from one family to another for her 13 years. To protect herself and Girl, she must face down gun-wielding townsfolk at the climax of the play.
The sacrifices Mother Hicks makes is in some ways as tragic as if she were physically overpowered by the mob. She abandons her claim to being innocent of witchcraft and uses the superstitions of her tormentors to frighten them away.
Director Nancy Curtis refers to ``Mother Hicks'' as ``children's theater that doesn't read like children's theater.'' Curtis, who has a 7-year-old son, adds: ``We forget the range of kids who have outgrown the fairy tales, the fourth-grade to seventh-grade age group who need the arts to be accessible to them.''
The set for ``Mother Hicks'' was designed by Mark Curtis, the director's husband, who has many credits to his own name. For this production, he had to design and paint scenery that would pack into suitcases, because the troupe has been picked by the American High School Theater Festival to perform ``Mother Hicks'' at the Edinburgh Fine Arts Festival this summer, and these performances are fund-raisers for the journey.
First Colonial will be one of only 10 high school troupes showing the American flag at this prestigious international theater festivals. According to Nancy Curtis, it's like being ``picked for the Olympics!'' ILLUSTRATION: WHAT & WHERE
What: ``Mother Hicks,'' by Susan Zeder.
Who: First Colonial Theatre Ensemble.
Where: First Colonial High School, 1272 Mill Dam Road.
When: 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.
Call: 496-6711.
Tickets: $5 adults, $2 under 12. by CNB