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Female
Voices of the Prairie
Deliver Multidimensional
Message in “The Friendly
Hour”
by
Amy Lyons
If you
think women’s groups are all
about baked goods and book
club selections, playwright
Tom Jacobson asks you to
think again. His latest
play, “The Friendly Hour”,
tells the story of a handful
of women in rural South
Dakota who unite against the
trials and trivialities of
prairie life. In forming a
club whose lighthearted,
chit-chatty name belies the
often intense conversations
of its members, these women
journey together through
seven decades of life.
The Road
Theatre Company is, as
usual, bursting with the
thoughtfulness, vision and
careful treatment this solid
script deserves.
The plot
structure is simple and
unwavering. We track the
central characters’ lives by
sitting in on select
meetings of the titular
club, starting with the
first coming together of
robust, girlish twenty-somethings
in 1934, and ending with a
thinned out group of
age-addled, world weary
matriarchs making their way,
or not, through the 21st
Century. Based on real-life
meeting minutes, the script
tackles questions of
religion, family values,
sexual orientation, politics
and gender roles.
The
meetings are not, needless
to say, always friendly.
Particularly prickly are
some of the exchanges
between Effie Voss (Kate
Mines) a by-the-book, harsh
Puritanical type and Dorcas
Briggle (Ann Noble), a more
carefree sort, who is
partial to dancing and
general merry-making. Both
actresses are up to the
challenge of being the
fiercest fighters in the
show, and they both grow old
with astonishing
authenticity.
Jacobson,
who wrote other Road
favorites, “Tainted Blood”,
“Bunbury” and “Ouroboros”,
infuses his script with a
clear respect for this
handful of females and a
careful treatment of their
aging processes. It’s tough
to get old, he seems to say,
but these women are tougher
than time’s inevitable
burdens. Their losses are
not the losses of
individuals, but the losses
of a powerful collective,
one that helps to heal while
paradoxically pouring salt
on certain open wounds. As
the women of this vastly
changing landscape discover
new life challenges and
embrace or reject modern
technology, they also stay
glaringly the same in many
areas. Their fights and
grudges don’t disappear over
time, but get carried
through the ages, creating a
sameness that binds and
often awakens old hurts. It
is the tiny traditions that
keep them tethered, even
when tempers flare. Every
meeting starts with a roll
call question, every meeting
has an entertainment portion
and every meeting ends with
a tasty lunch.
Mark
Bringelson brings a skilled
directorial hand to this
production and Desma
Murphy’s set goes from cozy
to eerie in a heartbeat.
Sustenance is at the heart
of this show. It is about
time, tradition,
togetherness, fighting and,
finally, feasting.
Through
November 1 at The Road
Theatre at the Lankershim
Arts Center. For
reservations, call
(866)811-4111 or visit
www.roadtheatre.org.
 Amy Lyons
is a professional freelance journalist, theatre critic and playwright, with a degree in Theatre Arts and English from UMass, Boston. Her articles, theatre reviews and photos regularly appear in numerous publications, including Beverly Press, Valley Life Magazine and The Record Collector News. Amy also serves as a script reader for Reliant Pictures. She can be reached at amykly@yahoo.com. |
