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The Trip to Bountiful
Taken from the March 13-19, 2008 issue of the Time Out Chicago
By Kris Vire
A crackling fire burns behind Lois Smiths ice-blue eyes. For much of her performance as Mrs. Carrie Watts in Footes The Trip to Bountiful, she restrains that fire to glowing embers: a joyful, childlike spark that lights her from within even at Mrs. Wattss weakest, most defeated moments. But when she lets the fire burn bright in the characters quest to visit her childhood home once more, were delighted but not surprised; its clearly been ready to reignite all along.
Yulins production at the Goodman is largely a recreation of his 2005 revival at New Yorks Signature Theatre Company, right down to the castingSmith reprises her role, as do Hallie Foote and Abner (the playwrights daughter and son-in-law, respectively) and other primary actors, with a complement of fine Chicago actors in smaller parts.
Footes 1953 play has a throwback feel (very few new plays these days would feature a cast of 18 for a story so simple), and the 1985 film that scored an Oscar for Geraldine Page as Mrs. Watts may have curtailed revivals. But Yulins production makes Bountiful a timeless tale of romanticized history. Both Hallie Foote and Meghan Andrews, as Mrs. Wattss accidental traveling companion, put in fine turns. But its Smith who carries the play on Carries hunched shoulders. Long before she gets to Bountiful, Texas, Smith has painted us a picture, and made clear that what it was is more important than what it is.
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