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Talley's Folly'

AUDREY BECKER

Special to the Jewish News

I

n Lanford Wilson's 1979 play
Tzlley's Folly, set in Lebanon, Mo.
(the playwright's birthplace), on
July 4, 1944, Jewish accountant
Matt Friedman has driven from St.
Louis to rural "Missouruh" to woo his
former fling, nurse Sally Talley. What
starts off as a lighthearted courtship
comedy turns thoughtfully into a drama
about personal and political awareness.
The current production, skillfully
directed by Artistic Director Evelyn
Orbach for Jewish Ensemble Theatre,
underscores the mission of the theater
company's ongoing "Campaign Stop
Hate.
Following on the heels of Romeo and
Juliet, in which the Montagues and
Capulets were portrayed as
Arabs and Jews instead of the
usual feuding Italian families,
Wilson's two-character drama fur-
thers JET's compelling look at complex
issues of religion and prejudice.
Matt Friedman is an immigrant of
uncertain origin who puts on broad
Southern accents for rhetorical effect but
is defensively unaware of his own subtle
Eastern European accent. Sally Talley is a
volatile, embittered woman with a latent
rebellious, nonconformist nature: she
was fired from her post as Sunday school
teacher when she read her students
excerpts from economist Thorstein
Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class,
instead of the usual Bible lesson.
Both characters have hidden stories
that come out when — to use Wilson's
dominant image — they allow their
fragile shells to break.
For reasons we discover as the play
develops, Friedman and Talley have rea-
sons why they have chosen to sit out the
waltz of courtship and romance. The
place where they make their revelations
is the run-down boathouse on the estate
of the Talley clan, a prestigious family
whose garment business survived the
Depression by manufacturing soldier's
uniforms.
The "folly" of the title is this decrepit
boathouse. It's a precious architectural
relic — charmingly captured in Monika
Essen's lush set design built by one of
Sally's forebears. In the gorgeous purple
twilight (kudos to Lighting Designer

Ron Burns), we learn that the play isn't
so much about the conflict between
Christian and Jew, but rather about ways
in which people keep secrets to protect
themselves from experiencing intimacy.
In his opening monologue, Friedman
promises the audience the play will be a
mere 97 minutes. And indeed, the pac-
ing of JET's production is excellent,
allowing the drama to develop all its
myriad complexities briskly, but without
seeming rushed.
As Friedman, Thomas Hoagland
bounds about the stage with appealing
charisma and intensity. He is engaging
as the intellectual, cynical, perceptive
wandering Jew.
Although Kelly Pino has some moving
moments at the end of the play, she
doesn't give the audience enough oppor-
tunity to sympathize with Talley, the
repressed "golden child" of the
town's well-to-do family. She
often sounds a bit too shrill;
her rebukes and rejection of
Friedman too harsh and cartoonish; her
vacillations too wide and too abrupt.
What seems to be missing from the
production is the necessary chemistry
between the two actors. Although this
means that the love story isn't nearly as
satisfying as it should be, both perform-
ances do justice to Wilson's poignant
language and imagery.
In 1980, Talley's Folly was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New
York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
Today, while the play resonates with a
new context of anti-Semitism, it contin-
ues to remind us of how passion, love,
humor and honesty can be antidotes to
brutal cultural conflicts. ❑

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