"ABUNDANCE"- reviewed by Tim Sauers
Beth Henley is a celebrated writer, highly regarded for her quirky look into small-town America. She couples offbeat humor with touching insights, penning warm-hearted works. Her plays are populated with eccentric characters confronting their predicaments in their own genuinely compassionate way. She provides her audiences with a richly emotional experience. Her work with "Abundance" teems with humanity and humor as she examines the plight of two mail order brides who meet while waiting for their husbands to pick them up to start life in a small town in the Wyoming Territory in the 1860s. The play spans 25 years as Henley depicts the trials and tribulations, hopes and dreams of Bess and Macon.
Under Bill Redding's direction, Pendulum Theatre Company's production is a worthy and lovely interpretation of Henley's work. Redding crafts an engaging production that he meticulously fills every moment of with thought and emotion. From his well-orchestrated staging to the sensual environment and the skilled ensemble he drives the work with his acute attention to detail. Henley's play is divided into 19 scenes, and with each and every one of them Redding and his cast handle the transitioning beautifully. Redding creates a tableau at the beginning and end of each scene, allowing for the feeling to resonate in the air. You follow the work wholeheartedly as Redding and his team deftly unfold the women's differing destinies.
Each of the players shine through the voices they portray. Lisa Rothschiller as the romantic Beth and Katherine Martinez Ripley as the determined Macon are marvelously paired. From their first interactions, they take you right along on their journey. It's funny how Ripley's performing style strongly resembles the feisty Holly Hunter, while Rothschiller visually favors the Oscar-winning actress. Michael Mazzara joins them as Bess' mean-spirited, loser of a husband, with Tom Pfeil as Macon's older, one-eyed spouse and Kelly D. Cooper as a professor.
When you walk into the Athenaeum Studio Theatre you are immediately welcomed into the production with J. Michael Desper's beautifully rendered Wyoming setting. The walls that frame the playing space are painted to depict a rural picturesque landscape that smartly seeps into the audience. A rustic, wooden planked house sits diagonally upstage right. The design radiantly transforms the intimate space into a vast wilderness. Patti Roeder continues the illusion with her gritty period costumes. She pays close to attention to realism as smudges of dirt on the skirts of women nicely illustrate this. Benton Bullwinkel's resplendent lighting, coupled with Joseph Fosco's sound (using the soundtrack for the original production written by Michael Roth), completes the picture. (***1/2)
("Abundance" runs through April 9 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport. 312-902-1500.)
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