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A slice of dysfunctional Texas life
Foote's "Dividing the Estate' at People's Light
Horton Foote and Tennessee Williams were both Southern playwrights, roughly contemporaries, yet one was the flip side of the other.
Williams was drawn to flamboyant eccentrics like Blanche DuBois and Big Daddy. Foote's plays and screenplays are populated by characters anyone could recognize from real life"“ diligent strivers, self-destructive drunks, elderly people wistfully living in the past. If Foote's plays lack the poetry that infuses Williams's best work, they're masterful in capturing the feel of their people, place and time.
Dividing the Estate, one of Foote's last works, is a portrait of a dysfunctional Southern family set in 1987—sort of a quieter, smaller-scale August: Osage County.
To sell or not?
For generations, the Gordon family has owned a huge swash of farmland in tiny Harrison, Texas. This property has sustained them financially so that until now, none of the older generation has ever had to do a day's work. 1987 was a boom year for much of America, but land and oil prices are down, which is bad news for the cash-strapped Gordons.
Stella, the family matriarch, is in her 80s, and two of her children, the irresponsible drunk Lewis and the greedy, abrasive Mary Jo, urge her to sell everything and divide the proceeds before she dies. This proposal leads to conflict with their sister, Lucille, who has been living with their mother, and Lucille's son, who runs the estate full-time. The squabbles in turn produce revelations about Lewis's scandalous conduct and Mary Jo's desperate financial straits.
The play is funny, yet it deftly explores themes of avarice and entitlement, and you can find echoes of Chekhov in its depiction of a disappearing social class.
Humanity of the ne'er-do-well
Under Abigail Adams's fluid direction, the members of the People's Light ensemble beautifully flesh out Foote's characters. The standouts include Graham Smith, who brings out the humanity in the ne'er-do-well Lewis; Kathryn Petersen, who renders Mary Jo's avarice and outrageous sense of entitlement alternately repulsive and funny; Greg Wood as Mary Jo's equally self-centered husband; Carla Belver as the willful matriarch; the always reliable Marcia Saunders as the flustered Lucille; and Christian Pedersen as Lucille's son, the family's oasis of sense.
The attractive set by Tony Straiges is a perfectly appropriate nest for an upper class Texas family. It's one of many elements that make this slice of life feel true.
Williams was drawn to flamboyant eccentrics like Blanche DuBois and Big Daddy. Foote's plays and screenplays are populated by characters anyone could recognize from real life"“ diligent strivers, self-destructive drunks, elderly people wistfully living in the past. If Foote's plays lack the poetry that infuses Williams's best work, they're masterful in capturing the feel of their people, place and time.
Dividing the Estate, one of Foote's last works, is a portrait of a dysfunctional Southern family set in 1987—sort of a quieter, smaller-scale August: Osage County.
To sell or not?
For generations, the Gordon family has owned a huge swash of farmland in tiny Harrison, Texas. This property has sustained them financially so that until now, none of the older generation has ever had to do a day's work. 1987 was a boom year for much of America, but land and oil prices are down, which is bad news for the cash-strapped Gordons.
Stella, the family matriarch, is in her 80s, and two of her children, the irresponsible drunk Lewis and the greedy, abrasive Mary Jo, urge her to sell everything and divide the proceeds before she dies. This proposal leads to conflict with their sister, Lucille, who has been living with their mother, and Lucille's son, who runs the estate full-time. The squabbles in turn produce revelations about Lewis's scandalous conduct and Mary Jo's desperate financial straits.
The play is funny, yet it deftly explores themes of avarice and entitlement, and you can find echoes of Chekhov in its depiction of a disappearing social class.
Humanity of the ne'er-do-well
Under Abigail Adams's fluid direction, the members of the People's Light ensemble beautifully flesh out Foote's characters. The standouts include Graham Smith, who brings out the humanity in the ne'er-do-well Lewis; Kathryn Petersen, who renders Mary Jo's avarice and outrageous sense of entitlement alternately repulsive and funny; Greg Wood as Mary Jo's equally self-centered husband; Carla Belver as the willful matriarch; the always reliable Marcia Saunders as the flustered Lucille; and Christian Pedersen as Lucille's son, the family's oasis of sense.
The attractive set by Tony Straiges is a perfectly appropriate nest for an upper class Texas family. It's one of many elements that make this slice of life feel true.
What, When, Where
Dividing the Estate. By Horton Foote; Abigail Adams directed. Through June 5, 2011 at People’s Light & Theatre Co., 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, Pa. (610) 644-3500 or www.peopleslight.org.
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