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News & ReviewsThree Tall WomenThe Dark Side of Aging Edward Albee is as far from “Grease” as a glower is from a smile. But for anyone interested in contemporary American drama, “Three Tall Women” ought to be in your repertoire. In Act I, the 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning play appears to be conventional in form. In Act II, Albee turns the tables with a coup-de-theatre that is brilliant, especially if no one has revealed its secret. The play opens in an elegant but claustrophobic bedroom of a wealthy widow, 91, known only as A. There we meet B, her caretaker and companion, and C, a young female lawyer sent to sort out finances. A series of rambling monologues, interrupted by explosive outbursts, partially answer the question: Who is this cantankerous old woman? Piece by piece we learn about a life of feminine calculation and class privilege. It helps to know that Albee himself said this play was the most autobiographical of all his works. Orphaned at birth, Albee was adopted into a wealthy New England family where status was always on display. Servants, a stable full of horses, expensive jewelry, and cheating on one’s spouse all came with the wallpaper. So did bigotry, anti- Semitism, pettiness and self deception. Albee grew up hating his parents so much that when he walked away, he never really came back. He never spoke to or saw his father again. Twenty years after his flight, he visited his mother (a subtext in the play), but there was no reconciliation. Given all that, “Three Tall” is a remarkable piece of dramaturgy. Credit Director Ginny Davis and her college ensemble for taking Albee’s astringent challenge. From lighting to line readings, subtlety is key in staging the work. In barely perceptible degrees, Technical Designer Nathan Lee shifts the visual temperature on stage from warm to cool. It’s especially effective when C (Ashli Ann Hemstreet) recalls her first love followed by B (Desiree Henderson) and her darker insights into the mysteries of sex. A downstage confrontation between A (Kelly Aragon) and The Boy (Dawson Cole) takes place in a cold, blue-white spot, perfect for the intensity of the moment, then it imperceptibly changes as the scene shifts focus and continues. Although in concept this is a highly abstract play, the dialogue is natural. The FLC actors, young as they are, breathe lines as easily as conversation. It’s harder than it looks. Pay attention and you’ll hear Aragon’s matriarch return again and again to her central theme: What was it like being a woman of her generation? Among other motifs, finding a husband and living with a philanderer constitute twin, almost musical themes that return again and again. This work revived Albee’s career. America’s perpetually angry young man had blistered Broadway 30 years earlier with “The Zoo Story” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” After these, he won two Pulitzers: “A Delicate Balance” 1967 and “Seascape” 1975. Then a string of problem plays and outright flops followed. At age 63 he wrote “Three Tall Women” and bounced back as the heir to Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams. “Three Tall Women” is for mature playgoers, especially those who are patient with Albee’s detailed style of exposition. If you want to see a work that explores aging, memory, class values and the tangle of self deception, don’t miss it. • |