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Review: Talking Pictures
Goodman brings Foote's 'Pictures' to life
THEATER REVIEW | An accurate portrait of small-town Southern life
Taken from the February 5, 2008 issue of the Chicago Sun-Times
By Hedy Weiss
The Russians have Anton Chekhov. The Irish have Brian Friel. And we Americans have Horton Foote, the Texas-bred writer who, happily, is still going strong as he approaches his 92nd birthday.
In many ways these 20th century playwrights are cross-cultural kissing cousins -- united by their sense that life (especially romantic love) tends to be a tragicomic exercise in thwarted dreams, and by their masterful way of capturing their characters' souls in ordinary conversation. There are differences, of course -- rooted in the particular country of origin and history of each artist -- but the sensibilities are remarkably alike.
For evidence, consider director Henry Wishcamper's charming, semifarcical but ultimately bittersweet production of "Talking Pictures" that opened Sunday at the Goodman Theatre -- the first salvo in the theater's multiplay Horton Foote Festival running through April 6.
Foote, the author of dozens of plays (but still best known for his screenplays for "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Tender Mercies" and "The Trip to Bountiful"), captures small-town Southern life of an earlier era with affection and wit. He doesn't disguise his characters' prejudices (against blacks and Mexicans, though even Baptists are suspect to Methodists, and a reminder that Jesus was Jewish can, hilariously, silence everyone). And he invariably strips away their veneer of moral rectitude. But he also understands what has shaped them, and champions their many strengths.
Change is the name of the game in Foote's play, set in the fictional town of Harrison, Texas, in 1929 as the Depression is about to descend, and as "the talkies" are replacing silent films at the local movie house. The resulting uncertainty gradually reaches a crescendo in the most unlikely place: the genteel, blue-collar Jackson family home, where Dad (Jason Wells) is a career railroad engineer who might be "bumped" to another town, and Mom (Judy Blue) is the morals monitor, forbidding her daughters even to go to the movies.
Yet those teenage daughters cannot be cloistered. The ever-curious reader Katie Bell (beguiling work by Lee Stark) strikes up a friendship with a young Mexican, Estaquio (Northwestern University senior Gabriel Notarangelo in a zesty comic turn), whose father is a Baptist preacher. And Vesta (Kathleen Romond, a ginger snap from Scotland), the goody two-shoes who continually rats on her sister, is curious in her own small-minded way.
In addition, the Jacksons have two somewhat more worldly boarders -- Myra (Jenny McKnight, an actress whose serene surface is in beautiful tension with her volcanic emotions) and Willis (impeccable work by Philip Earl Johnson). Myra makes her living playing piano for the last silent film theater in the area, and painfully watches as her 16-year-old son (an ideally restive Bubba Weiler) moves closer to his Houston-based father (Dan Waller). Willis is a lonely, tender-hearted bricklayer whose estranged wife, Gladys (Audrey Francis, a hoot as the vulgar opportunist), really stirs things up when she arrives with her jealous suitor (E. Vincent Teninty).
In short order, matters of sex, money and religion -- all the unmentionables -- pop right out of the box. And Harrison, Texas, becomes a capital city on its own terms.
One caveat: Voices can get lost or garbled in this in-the-round staging at the Owen Theatre. This should be attended to.
Theater Review
'Talking Pictures'
Recommended
When: Through March 2
Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn
Tickets: $10 - $38
Call: (312) 443-3800
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