By JAMES D. WATTS JR. Scene Writer on Sep 12, 2012, at 12:33 PM Updated on 9/12 at 12:56 PM
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Heller Theatre has presented a lot of plays that are better than Bekah Brunstetter’s play “Be a Good Little Widow.”
But the cast, under the guidance of director Erin Scarberry, has infused this very plain, very obvious little drama with a deeply felt emotional power that elevates this show into being something truly special.
With a title like “Be a Good Little Widow,” the play can only be about grief. Brunstetter provides a look at the relationship between the newly married Melody (Dara Allen) and Craig (Derick Snow).
He’s a corporate lawyer whose job takes him all over the country, leaving Melody isolated in their Connecticut home. The only family nearby is Craig’s mother Hope (Susan Dergoul), a highly controlled, highly controlling woman who makes little secret of her disdain for her unexpected daughter-in-law.
Then, the commuter plane bringing Craig back from yet another business trip crashes. And Melody and Hope have to deal with their loss, their memories and each other.
Hope has experience: her own husband died years ago and she’s been a stalwart member of the local Widow’s League, with its codified concepts of the proper way to mourn.
Melody, however, can do little more than let her emotions swing wildly from experiencing ghostly visits from her dead husband to drunken flirting with Craig’s underling Brad (Roderick Hudson).
Brunstetter’s dialogue serviceable at best; she occasionally will cap off a good passage with a final phrase that’s meant to be an ironic sting but instead falls with a thud.
What makes it work is the sincerity and openness of the cast, the honest, unadorned way they present these characters. Even the most problematic character — Brad, whose devotion to his boss is difficult to fathom — is made more believable by Hudson’s boyish confusion.
Melody is still very much a child — or at least, an adolescent — in spite of her stated age of 26, and Allen’s portrayal is just about perfect. She captures all the mercurial moods of the character in precise, yet understated, detail — the scene where she realizes her husband has died is all the more powerful for its relative quietness.
Dergoul’s Hope is an excellent counterpoint. Physically she towers over Allen to give the illusion of strength and command, and Dergoul delicately portrays the inexorable crumbling of that facade.
As the object of everyone’s affections, Snow plays Craig as the ultimate nice guy, a fellow so affable and transparent that his death seems even more of an inexplicable waste. What could have been a genial cipher, Snow makes into a real character, so that the audience feels his absence as much as the characters on stage.
It all results in a show that, by its end, had several audience members — men and women — wiping away tears.
Director Scarberry, Frank Gallagher and Emma Francois were responsible for creating, editing and implementing sound design, David Lawrence designed the lights, John Cruncleton built the set.
“Be a Good Little Widow” continues with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Henthorne PAC, 4825 S. Quaker Ave. Tickets are $10; call 918-746-5065 for reservations.
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