
DATE: Saturday, May 31, 1997                TAG: 9705300083

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Theater Review 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

``SO LONG ON LONELY STREET'' IS LONG ON SOUTHERN CLICHES

THINGS JUST haven't been the same since they sold Tara to Sears and Roebuck. And so it is, also, with Honeysuckle Hill, the Vaughn family ``plantation'' in Sandra Deer's entertaining ``So Long on Lonely Street,'' which is playing at the Generic Theater in Norfolk.

The Vaughns gather for the reading of Aunt Pearl's will - with 25 acres of not-so-prime land at stake. Gathered with them is just about every cliche known to Tennessee Williams, with quite a few thrown in from the more-serious bent of William Faulkner. The characters, and cliches, are lovingly and regularly paraded by like familiar visitors from cat on a not-so-hot roof to a streetcar named wannabe.

There are the twins. One is the middle-aged soap opera star down from New York. John Anderson, who plays him, is not totally believable as a matinee idol, but he brings a wry reading to his part as the visitor from up nawth.

His twin sister, Ruth, is known as ``the oldest virgin in the county'' and she doesn't care. Virginia Vail brings appropriate swagger to the part. Lawyer Bobby (Donald Gracon) is her regular gentleman caller.

Aunt Pearl, who was apparently something of a battle-ax when she was alive, lies at state in the living room, attended by her lifelong companion, Annabel Lee (named after a poem by Mr. Edgar Allan Poe, a favorite writer of Blanche Dubois herself). Marji Murchison brings a refreshing nobility and brittleness to that role. Annabel Lee was raised in the family but always treated as no more than a servant by Pearl. Now she hopes to inherit the place but needs someone to live with her because King, the other cousin, and his pregnant wife, Clarice (Carmen Vogt), plan to cart her away to a mental institution.

The play is sparked by the conniving couple. Add King, a scheming Bruce Dern type, to Bob Nelson's long list of worthy characterizations on local stages. King has plans to get Honeysuckle Hill for himself and turn it into a Christian shopping center.

There are family secrets, and before you can say William Faulkner, you can bet incest lurks somewhere back in those family trees.

``So Long on Lonely Street'' is a mediocre script by Sandra Deer, but it is nonetheless entertaining. The cliches are like finding old friends, mixed with the joy of witnessing just how far the playwright will go with all these visits to Southern-gothic mythology. Suffice it to say that she goes pretty far.

Director Wally Doyle has wisely instructed his cast to play it all straight. There is not a hint at begging for laughter here. It's only when the play itself goes a bit overboard in pandering about loneliness and lost dreams that we have a chance to wonder whether playwright Deer really means for us to feel something, or can we just relax and have a good time.

``So Long on Lonely Street'' is an entertaining visit to a down South family hell. It would be enough to make Aunt Pittypat feel faint. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MANNING STUDIO

From left, John Anderson, Virginia Vail and Carmen Vogt star in ``So

Long on Lonely Street.''

Graphic

THEATER REVIEW

``So Long on Lonely Street''

What: The comedy-drama by Sandra Deer

Where: Generic Theater in Norfolk

Who: Directed by Wally Doyle with set by Hank Sparks, cast

featuring Marji Murchison, Bob Nelson, Virginia Vail, Carmen Vogt,

John Anderson, Donald Gracon

When: Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.,