Play probes faith with humor
and drama
Mark
Jordan
Mount Vernon News
God
works in mysterious ways. And his marketing skills are amazing. The
very same week that the Freshwater controversy about a teacher
having a Bible on his desk swept Mount Vernon and the so-called
“documentary” film about Intelligent Design, “Expelled,” opened at
the movie theater (review to come Monday), Bruce Jacklin and
Company opened a comedy/drama at the Alcove that has everything in
the world to do with faith and faith’s followers. Jacklin need not
be suspected of capitalizing on ready publicity about the
intersection of faith and society, for the play “Messiah on the
Frigidaire” was chosen over a year ago and has been in rehearsal
for weeks.
The
play involves a woman named Lou Ann Hightower, who lives in a
trailer park with her husband Dwayne. She confesses her frustration
at her dead-end life to her best friend Betsy, and says that she’s
been praying hard for a sign that she’s on the right path. As the
sun goes down and streetlights come on, they cast shadows on the
Hightowers’ extra refrigerator— kept on the porch— which look like
an image of Jesus. Or Willie Nelson, in Dwayne’s estimation. Soon
the trailer park becomes the shrines to which thousands flock in
order to see the image. But the situation deteriorates as problems
erupt right and left. At the peak of things, Lou Ann chops up the
hedges casting the shadows after she sees a woman smacking her
blind son for not believing hard enough that the image will give
him his sight. Just after that moment of despair and doubt, a
kindly old stranger wanders up to the sobbing Lou Ann, calls her by
name, and tells her not to give up hope. He says that God is not
where everyone says He is, but is where He appears not to
be.
As
Lou Ann, Maureen Browning was earnest and likable in the comic
parts, and genuinely moving in the dramatic parts, particularly her
crisis of faith in act two. Megan Evans was mischievous and sharp
as best friend Betsy, slowly revealing new layers of the character
as the play unfolded, giving what could have been a stereotypical
character real depth. Bruce Jacklin started the character Dwayne
pretty broadly, but gave genuine conviction to the character’s
non-intellectual but very real questioning of the usual order of
things. This allowed Dwayne to develop into a sort of thinking
man’s blue-collar comedian. He gave the role soul,
too.
Ian
Ernsberger conveyed the strained unctuousness of Preacher Hodges,
who first throws Lou Ann out of the church, and then invites her
back in when the image becomes popular. The small town’s crooked
banker Larry Williamson was played by Gene Johnson as an
opportunistic political cad unable to see his own limitations. Hope
Dial made a brief but memorable appearance as the self-professed
faithful mother who takes out her anger on her child. The poor
blind child was played with simple, heart-breaking eagerness and
confusion by young Michael Chadil, a sixth grader from
Fredericktown making his debut at the Alcove. Last, but far from
least, Chuck Ransom was witty and wise as the elderly stranger who
wanders up to Lou Ann’s porch and bestows a little
grace.
Jacklin’s
direction gave the show balance in traversing what could be a
mine-field. Played as nasty stereotypes, the trailer park tenants
could have come across as nothing more than poor white trash. But
Jacklin guided his actors to finding the real people beneath the
characters’ surfaces. Thus Betsy wasn’t just the once-upon-a-time
“high school slut,” she was a real person, somewhat troubled by her
past without being ashamed of it. Lou Ann wasn’t a naïve believer,
she was one who constantly re-examined her faith, sifting it for
answers. The play’s script, by John Culbertson, largely avoids
cheap shots, finding laughs in the characters foibles without
mocking them, a refreshing change for a play set in a southern
trailer park.
As
always, Jacklin found ingenious ways to fit all the set and action
on the Alcove’s small stage, decorated as the exterior of a mobile
home. One tiny detail that slightly distracted me was that the
clothing hanging on the clothesline hung through several scenes
ostensibly taking place over a number of days before being taken
down in a later scene as part of the stage business. The costumes
were effective, with some snazzy outfits showing off Evans’
model-like figure. The lighting was good, with the images clearly
visible on the refrigerator. Two sound notes: First, since the
actress had a pair of hedge clippers in hand for the climactic
hedge-clipping moment, I’m not sure why the staging suddenly
defaults to a sound-effect; second, a quicker fade-out and start to
the curtain call at play’s end wouldn’t hurt.
The
play continues Saturday night and the next three
weekends.