THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9503020062
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MONTAGUE GAMMON III, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
ABORTION, RAPE and kidnapping hardly make ``Keely and Du'' light entertainment, but the Generic Theater production of this play deserves the attention of anyone interested in serious theater.
To call this a play about abortion rights is to underestimate it. Though that thorny issue is the heart of this plot, the true theme of Jane Martin's script is the tension between the rational and the emotional natures of humans.
Martin has crafted a modern fable about a young woman named Keely, kidnapped on her way to an abortion clinic. Her captors are devoutly Christian, radical anti-abortion activists.
Walter, a pastor and leader of their group, and Du, a trained nurse, plan to keep her imprisoned, under a doctor's care, until the child she is carrying is almost full term. Du will be her constant companion.
They know Keely's pregnancy is the result of rape by her alcoholic ex-husband. They have even found the husband, helped him to control his addiction and enabled him to acknowledge his guilt.
Walter clearly believes that he can convince Keely through logical arguments that she should bear the child she carries. He has also convinced himself that his own objection to abortion is fundamentally logical rather than emotional.
He has not allowed for the importance of Keely's feelings, nor Du's, nor his own. That shortsightedness is the flaw in his plan.
Walter is played by D.D. Delaney, Du by Jala Magik and Keely by Anne Morton. Each gives a smooth, highly competent performance that begins strong but then seems to reach a plateau once a basic character has been well established.
This flattening out is in part a function of the script, which, like the characters, must play a waiting game during the months of Keely's captivity. Yet the words and actions of these characters show changes taking place in each person. The way the performers speak and act does not finally keep pace with the development suggested by what they say and do.
Though one passage in which Keely mocks Walter's bombastic mannerisms lets Morton reveal something of her abilities, her range and the depth of her talent become clear only in the play's last scene. Even Joel Ladd, who makes an intense, riveting appearance as Keely's ex-husband, seems to level off rather than reaching the peak of nearly hysterical religious fervor one expects.
Nonetheless, all four actors have created believable characterizations worth watching.
Martin's script and Betty Xander's direction are notably even-handed in their treatment of Keely's captors and their beliefs. This is not a polemic for either side of the abortion rights debate but a dramatic exploration of four people who approach that issue from four distinct points of view.
If this production does not have the exceptional clarity of performance that usually characterizes shows at the Generic, it is still well done. The script is the sort of challenging, topically daring piece that one depends upon the Generic to produce once or twice each year. MEMO: THEATER REVIEW
What: ``Keely and Du,'' by Jane Martin
When: 8 tonight, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Through March
19.
Where: Generic Theater, 912 W. 21st St., Norfolk
Tickets: $8 on Thursdays and Sundays, $10 on Fridays and Saturdays
Call: 441-2160 by CNB