The latest offering at Off-Broadstreet Theatre is this lovely little memory play.
By: Stuart Duncan
Bob and Julie Thick at Off-Broadstreet Theatre in Hopewell continue to astonish. Time after time, they take the gentlest, least imposing plays, heat them to exactly the proper temperature and serve them up. The appreciative audiences then devour the shows with the same relish they do the pre-show desserts.
The latest is Foxfire, a lovely little memory play (with music) that served as a vehicle for Hume Cronyn and his wife, Jessica Tandy, 20 years ago in New York. The run lasted about a half season and won a Tony Award for Ms. Tandy. Later, James Whitmore and his wife, Audrey Lindley, came to George Street in New Brunswick with the show.
The title is not to be confused with the movie Firefox, which apparently is about a jet fighter. Rather, foxfire is a lichen that grows on dead, fallen trees, mainly in the forests of southern Appalachia and is said to glow in the dark. The play uses material from a series of 11 Foxfire books, written first in column form by students for a Rabun County, Ga., student newspaper.
You may remember a 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame television movie in which Cronyn and Tandy reprised the roles of Annie and Hector Nations and were joined by John Denver, who played the couple’s son, Dillard.
The Thicks and Off-Broadstreet have given us a nostalgic remembrance of theater as it might be again a play with gentle laughs that start at the toes and reach the heart, ideas that float on the imagination until the mind is ready to process them. In short, Foxfire.
As the evening begins, we meet Annie Nations and her husband, Hector, dead for five years. Hector lies buried in the orchard atop the hill but still appears to Annie as needed. Dillard, the son and last of three children, is a traveling minstrel with roots in Florida and wants Annie to join him there. Prince Carpenter is the smooth-talking real-estate developer with patience to burn, and Holly Burrell is now the local school teacher. Finally, the area doctor appears briefly in a flashback.
It is a superb, veteran cast. June Connerton adds to a memorable list of fine portrayals as Annie practical, gentle, but stubborn. Ed Mahler, as Hector, is just plain stubborn but finds exactly the right mixture of pique and picant. The chemistry between the pair jumps like cracks of static electricity.
Harris Goodman plays Dillard with earnest passion, then underscores the performance with his guitar, a lovely voice and poignant tunes. Curtis Kaine has his best role in years as the real-estate man with an eye to both property and a profit. Christy McCall makes the most of a scantily written role as the school teacher.
The script leaps from present to past, from laughter to pain. Off-Broadstreet has a huge success on its hands. Make your plans early; in a few weeks, tickets will be tough to find.
Foxfire plays at Off-Broadstreet Theatre, 5 S. Greenwood Ave., Hopewell, through March 16. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sun. 2:30 p.m.; doors open one hour earlier for dessert and beverages. For information, call (609) 466-2766.