THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 9, 1996 TAG: 9610080182
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: THEATER REVIEW
SOURCE: [M]ontague Gammon III
LENGTH: 78 lines
Some fledgling actors got to exercise their performing skills and demonstrate their potential in a bill of three one-act plays by Tennessee Williams that Virginia Wesleyan College called ``Three by Tennessee.''
In ``This Property is Condemned,'' two teenagers meet by a lonely railroad track. Willie is a disturbed young girl who lives alone in the abandoned rooming house that her family had owned, before her mother skipped town, her promiscuous sister died, and her father disappeared.
Tom claims he is playing hooky from school to fly his kite. He gets Willie to tell him the story of her family, and to relate the fantasies and illusions into which she has retreated.
Both Karissa Peckham and Phillip Barnhart were reasonably believable in their roles, though the dialogue never clarified whether they were 12 or 13 years old, or in their later teens. Their interactions were acceptably clear, although their performances did miss one vital element of the unspoken, implied content of the lines that is called the subtext.
Toward the end of the play, Tom tells Willie that a friend of his claimed that she had danced naked for him. Clearly, Tom's meeting with Willie was anything but random. He had only been feigning ignorance of her identity and situation.
The remark about dancing should have been blurted out, when Tom could no longer hold his tongue about the real reason he was idling away his time where he could encounter this notorious girl. She in turn should have recognized his pretense and more drastically changed her attitude toward him.
The title of the second play, ``The Lady of Larkspur Lotion,'' was accompanied by a footnote in the playbill explaining that ``Larkspur Lotion was a common remedy for body vermin.'' The title character claims that she uses the stuff to remove nail polish.
She calls herself Mrs. Hardwick-Moore, and pretends to be heir to a Brazilian rubber plantation that is tied up in litigation. In fact, as her landlady points out, she is a prostitute.
Andrea L. Medina showed a good understanding of Mrs. Hardwick-Moore's retreat from reality. Amy Insley, who is one of the more experienced performers in these casts, had an easy time portraying the brusque, coarsely commercial landlady.
Another young veteran of the Virginia Wesleyan stage, Brian Monahan, appears late in the play as an alcoholic would-be writer, who rents another room in the same house. Like Insley, he's hardly challenged by the superficial demands of his role, though he could act a bit more manipulative as his character begins to angle for some free attention from Mrs. Hardwick-Moore.
The third play could have given its title, ``Something Unspoken,'' to the entire evening since unvoiced sexuality was one of the themes that ran through each of the scripts.
``Something Unspoken'' is a two-character piece about a wealthy Southern spinster and the widow who has served as her secretary for 15 years. On this anniversary of their meeting, Cornelia, the spinster, gives Grace, the secretary, 15 roses and begins to speak of her feelings about their long association. Grace repeatedly ducks the issue, contriving excuses to change the subject or to leave the room.
Meredith Plimley, in the role of Cornelia, found herself in the difficult position of a young actress portraying a much older, somewhat superficial and affected character. It's almost impossible in such a situation to deliver a performance which does not stress the affectations over all other qualities.
The irony of this self-conscious Southern society woman trying to express her love for another woman was understood, but the internal struggle Cornelia must have been fighting wasn't as evident as it might have been.
Melia Fuller had a good grasp of the shyness and the self-effacing quality that are central to the mousy Grace. It was not entirely clear if Grace returned Cornelia's affection but was uneasy speaking about it, or if the very concept bothered her.
Shirley Hurd directed all three pieces smoothly, with three effective and clever sets by Jerald D. Pope. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
AT A GLANCE
What: ``Three by Tennessee,'' three one-act plays by Tennessee
Williams
When: The production ran last Thursday through Sunday.
Where: Virginia Wesleyan College, Wesleyan Drive by CNB