The American South, with its murky swamps
and oppressive hierarchy, has always contradicted the American
ideal of wide-open space and the freedom to roam it.
It is this discordancy, however, that has given birth to much
of our country’s greatest literature. Writers like William Faulkner,
Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers and Thomas Wolfe all drew from
their experiences growing up in the South to create powerful,
often wrenching novels. Not surprisingly, the inherent theatricality
of these works has led to frequent dramatization.
"Look Homeward, Angel," Ketti Frings’ 1957 play based
on Wolfe’s novel, is an emotionally charged psychological drama
that met with considerable success on Broadway (it won the New
York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards and received six Tony nominations)
thanks to its Pulitzer Prize-winning script and the combined
talent of set designer Jo Meilziner, and actor Anthony Perkins,
who played the lead role of Eugene Gant.
This season, the Heights Players are tackling the challenging
script. They should be saluted for the attempt, but despite one’s
desire to applaud the result, for the most part the play has
proven to be too much for this venerable community theater.
That’s not to say there weren’t high points in the production.
Fabio Taliercio, making his directorial debut, moves a large
cast smoothly and naturally across the stage – turned into a
lifelike reproduction of an early 20th-century boarding house
in North Carolina by set designer Gerry Newman. But for the most
part, he was unable to get his actors to breathe life into the
strangled personalities of the people who live in that boarding
house.
"Look Homeward, Angel" is a coming-of-age play about
17-year-old Eugene Gant (Logan Steele) who runs from the possessive,
domineering grasp of his mother (Lois Look) into the arms of
a boarder six years his senior, the comely Laura James (Tracy
Gaillard). It is also about the tumultuous relationship between
his avaricious, shrewd mother and her husband (John Downing),
a passionate drunkard with a spiritual streak.
Into this basic framework various subplots are interwoven. Eugene’s
brother Ben (Jerry Kahn) is a useless failure who is determined
to save his brother from a similar fate. His sister Helen (Mary
Anna Principe) is married to another slacker, Hugh Barton (the
excellent Doug Cote), who can find no better employment than
lolling about the front porch, reading the paper and making snide
but impotent comments.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this production is that the
characters seem to throw their lines into the air rather than
at each other. At times they actually face the audience when
they should be in each other’s face.
Another problem is the relationship between Eugene and Laura.
Eugene is portrayed as a young hick. He is gangling, awkward
and sometimes tongue-tied, yet he manages to attract a woman
who is supposedly swept off her feet by his virile presence.
Come on!
In addition, if Steele is 17 then this reviewer is 21 – again.
Steele, who is not without talent, makes up for his obvious maturity
by over-emphasizing the youth of his character to such an extent
that it’s hard to believe he ever got up the gumption to make
love to his woman and choose her over his mother, to boot.
Look is conniving and appropriately sweet in a syrupy southern
way. But her performance does not explore all the devious routes
her character takes. Beneath that syrup, there’s a core of steel
the audience just doesn’t see enough of.
Fortunately, often when the actors seem to be walking around
in circles, Downing, with his abundance of energy and appetite,
bursts onto the stage and makes the audience remember what this
play is really about. Downing is filled with rage and remorse.
He knows he has destroyed his life and the lives of those he
cares about. But he is like a bull tormented by a waving red
cape. Like all great forces, he cannot stop or be stopped.
When Wolfe first came on the literary scene in the late 1920s
he was ranked with the likes of Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
In more recent years, his sprawling novels are considered more
bombastic than poetic. What a pity our short attention span has
made us petty.
"Look Homeward, Angel" is drama the way it should be.
It is funny and tragic. The characters have their own rhythm
and walk their own paths. A private, mostly painful, destiny
hangs over their lives. If the Heights Players have not been
able to completely fill Wolfe’s huge shoes, they have at least
taken a few steps in the right direction.
The Heights Players production of "Look
Homeward, Angel" plays through Nov. 21, Friday and Saturday
at 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm. Tickets are $12, $10 seniors and
students. The Heights Players are located at 26 Willow Place
between State and Joralemon streets in Brooklyn Heights. For
reservations, call (718) 237-2752.
