Tom Harris and his production staff of The Murfreesboro Ensemble Theatre are to be commended for the 10 wonderful years they have delighted Rutherford County?audiences with their outstanding stage pageantry. Their?final curtain will close after the?last presentation of “Talking Heads” on April 21.
The three actors in this production, Sara Croft, Arita Trahan and Jo Wintker, look deep into our souls with their three solo presentations, and cause laughter, pain and memories of?our own lives as we all fight aging.
In “Nights in the Gardens of Spain,” directed by Richard Northcutt, Trahan begins in the spotlight as a rather plain British woman who develops a friendship with another woman sent to prison for murdering her own husband.
Trahan sets believable scenes as she delivers her monologue. She has no friends, and if the scene had continued, would probably have ended up murdering her husband as well.
In the next sequence, “Bed Among the Lentils,” directed by and featuring Croft, the actress plays a vicker’s wife. A woman who really doesn’t believe in God, she frequently raids the vestry’s wine cupboard, and does what most any minister’s wife does . . . talks about people of?the church. Her tryst with a man half her age adds to the humour.
In the last, and arguably the best of the three, Wintker introduces herself as Violet, a 90-year-old delight in a wheelchair. In this scene, “Waiting for the Telegram,” directed by Tom Harris, Miss Violet struggles to remember words, thoughts and memories due to a stroke that put her in the nursing home. Her gift to say whatever she wants, whenever she wants gives us the warm fuzzies of our own grandmas, and perhaps our own mortality.
The entire presentation lasted about?two and a half hours, with two intermissions. Mine and my parents’ generations will thoroughly enjoy this warm trio of monologues. Unless you are a theatre buff that likes hanging out with an older crowd, I don’t?believe the younger generations would care for this set of plays, and further, would probably not fully understand the ideas or motives set forth.
The production?continues at 7:30 p.m. April 19 – 21?at the Murfreesboro/ Rutherford County Center for the Arts.
