A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur
This is not Tennessee Williams' finest play. One might guess that the ninety minute piece, continuing at Hartford Stage through May 7, was composed early during the poetic playwright's career. Wrong. He wrote the script during the late 1970s, even if the action dates back to 1935 in St. Louis. With classic characterizations, this, according to logic, would demonstrate a young writer's gleaming potential. Not so: he penned the play towards the end of his time.
It is Dotty (Annalee Jeffries, always a Hartford Stage T. Williams splendid performer) who hopes that T. Ralph Ellis will call her. You might guess, as of this very moment, that she suffers disappointment. That is the play's climax. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of creative tension, dramatic impact.....until that point.
Dotty does situps, pelvic thrusts while Bodey (Carlin Glynn) fries up some chicken in anticipation of the picnic to Creve Coeur.
Helena (Joan van Ark), the sharp-featured, caustic teaching colleague of Dotty's at Blewett, is jealous of the rooms inhabited by Dotty and Bodey.
Actress Jayne Taini plays Sophie who erupts in German, from time to time, and is anything but a sympathetic character.
Michael Wilson, whose interpretations of Tennessee Williams are uniformly superb, hasn't a great deal with which to work -- in terms of scripting. Instead, the director wisely turns his attention to repartee among the foursome. Williams paints each of these women with distinctive strokes and costumer David C. Woolard outfits them with perfect period fashion get-ups.
Exquisite timing is essential and the combined efforts of the actors in conjunction with Wilson's direction cannot be underestimated. "A Lovely Sunday" features top quality ensemble performance.
That said, the production leaves anyone expecting either sublime ("Glass Menagerie") or potent ("Streetcar," "Cat") Williams wishing for more. This is a short play but it does not zip along. The play, itself, does not measure up to this sterling master's scintillating work.
It is Dotty (Annalee Jeffries, always a Hartford Stage T. Williams splendid performer) who hopes that T. Ralph Ellis will call her. You might guess, as of this very moment, that she suffers disappointment. That is the play's climax. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of creative tension, dramatic impact.....until that point.
Dotty does situps, pelvic thrusts while Bodey (Carlin Glynn) fries up some chicken in anticipation of the picnic to Creve Coeur.
Helena (Joan van Ark), the sharp-featured, caustic teaching colleague of Dotty's at Blewett, is jealous of the rooms inhabited by Dotty and Bodey.
Actress Jayne Taini plays Sophie who erupts in German, from time to time, and is anything but a sympathetic character.
Michael Wilson, whose interpretations of Tennessee Williams are uniformly superb, hasn't a great deal with which to work -- in terms of scripting. Instead, the director wisely turns his attention to repartee among the foursome. Williams paints each of these women with distinctive strokes and costumer David C. Woolard outfits them with perfect period fashion get-ups.
Exquisite timing is essential and the combined efforts of the actors in conjunction with Wilson's direction cannot be underestimated. "A Lovely Sunday" features top quality ensemble performance.
That said, the production leaves anyone expecting either sublime ("Glass Menagerie") or potent ("Streetcar," "Cat") Williams wishing for more. This is a short play but it does not zip along. The play, itself, does not measure up to this sterling master's scintillating work.
posted by Fred Sokol at 3:17 PM
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