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Thursday, November 27, 2008
Women in Guild play are together and alone
DAYTON — What’s the real story behind a photograph? The Dayton Theatre Guild explores the question with mixed success in the R.T. Robinson play “The Cover of Life.”
It’s about three wives left behind in a small Louisiana town when their husbands go off to fight in World War II. They move in with their mother in law (Jennifer Lockwood in a quietly compelling performance). Her man is AWOL for less patriotic reasons. A writer from Life magazine (played by Debra Strauss) comes from New York to do a cover story on the wives and learns way more than she expected to.
Like a photo that’s open to interpretation, this two-act play directed by Fran Pesch is about more than that, and less.
With kooky characters named Tood (Angela Timpone as the play’s central character), Weetsie (Wendi Williams) and hometown reporter Addie Mae (Heather Martin in a crisp and lively portrayal), the first impression is a Southern-fried comedy. But that’s fleeting.
The script aspires to be more — too much more — with elements of tragedy. It doesn’t have the stuff to be convincing on that level very often. One exception is a well-played Act 2 soliloquy for Holly Kuhn as fast and flashy Sybil, who proves to have a soft and conventional soul beneath her modern, bold swagger.
What’s sorely missing is a connection between the women. That’s almost as nonexistent as their mostly unreliable men. We only see one of them (Matt Curry as Tommy) in imaginary visits while his wife, Tood, reads his letters. The main quest in her life seems to be to convince him not to go into his brother’s bait business. She’d rather switch to venturing out on their own.
For all of the suggestions that her struggle is somehow profound, the drama’s actual heft is much lighter. The blame for that is in the script, not in Timpone’s measured performance.
“The Cover of Life’s” most significant aspect is how alone and on their own all of these people are. Lockwood expresses the cost of that emptiness very clearly as Ola.
Performances continue on weekends through Dec. 7 at 2330 Salem Ave. Tickets are $10-$17 at (937) 278-5993.
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