Results Are In...
Would you believe it, the South show was a hit. The last show (a Sunday matinee) was completed without a hitch and there was a big audience. We struck the set, got together at a friend's house and tried to unwind. We held auditions for this play 5 months ago and I've been planning it for almost a year, so I'm sure that you'll understand that, for the purposes of brevity and to make me feel good, I'll stick to the highlights when I quote a review by William Furtwangler, of the Charleston Post and Courier.
'A visually impressive recreation of the day before the start of the U.S. Civil War, April 11, 1861, at the "Bonaventure" Plantation, somewhere south of Charleston. The Sottile Theatre, filled to near capacity, resonated to a variety of Southern drawls, the music of Richard Wagner (and others) and a spirit of impending doom.
'Green (1900-1998), with a mother from Savannah and father from Virginia, was born in Paris and spent the majority of his life in France, becoming a member of the distinguished and exclusive literary institution Academie Francaise. "South" (or "Sud") was penned in 1953. Considering the play's subject matter, it was daring, if not scandalous, for those times.
Green's players mused about the theology of war and peace, slavery and abolition, and unacknowledged heterosexual and homosexual love, though in this production the last point was downplayed to the point of murkiness, much as Hollywood treated its adaptations of the plays of Tennessee Williams and William Inge...
'Once the plot got moving this strange tale of people out of touch with reality, not unlike Chekov's Russian aristocracy, began to be believable and gripping. Clarence Felder (Edward Broderick, plantation owner) dominated the stage when present. Trevor Erickson (Jan Wicziewsky) emerged gradually but convincingly as a descendant of Polish nobles torn between the North and the South, among other things. Christina Rhodes (Regina), an orphan relative from the North, was believable in her abolitionist stance. Overall, a good production of a slightly different view of the Old South.'
'A visually impressive recreation of the day before the start of the U.S. Civil War, April 11, 1861, at the "Bonaventure" Plantation, somewhere south of Charleston. The Sottile Theatre, filled to near capacity, resonated to a variety of Southern drawls, the music of Richard Wagner (and others) and a spirit of impending doom.
'Green (1900-1998), with a mother from Savannah and father from Virginia, was born in Paris and spent the majority of his life in France, becoming a member of the distinguished and exclusive literary institution Academie Francaise. "South" (or "Sud") was penned in 1953. Considering the play's subject matter, it was daring, if not scandalous, for those times.
Green's players mused about the theology of war and peace, slavery and abolition, and unacknowledged heterosexual and homosexual love, though in this production the last point was downplayed to the point of murkiness, much as Hollywood treated its adaptations of the plays of Tennessee Williams and William Inge...
'Once the plot got moving this strange tale of people out of touch with reality, not unlike Chekov's Russian aristocracy, began to be believable and gripping. Clarence Felder (Edward Broderick, plantation owner) dominated the stage when present. Trevor Erickson (Jan Wicziewsky) emerged gradually but convincingly as a descendant of Polish nobles torn between the North and the South, among other things. Christina Rhodes (Regina), an orphan relative from the North, was believable in her abolitionist stance. Overall, a good production of a slightly different view of the Old South.'
posted by Nick Smith @ 7:11 AM
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