THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504110129
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
``Another Part of the Forest,'' the Lillian Hellman drama running at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach, is marked by performances of quality, among which the work of two actors stands out as exceptional.
The finesse of Bob Burchette and Kathy Umberger and the tasteful guidance of director Liz Sills bring ignity to a script that could easily become overwrought, dealing wholesale in stereotypes and leading actors into the temptation of grandiose emotional displays. Forcefulness is Hellman's strong suit, subtlety is not.
This is one of those American family dramas, or melodramas, that self-consciously traces its heritage to the great Greek tragedies. Miss Hellman depicts a Reconstruction Alabama family, grown newly rich through the war profiteering of patriarch Marcus Hubbard, as the sins of the father begin to be visited upon his sons and upon his own head.
The term rapacious, conventionally applied to the Hubbards, is a gargantuan understatement. The whole tribe is self-interested, acquisitive and amoral to a degree that beggars simple description.
Burchette plays the elder Hubbard, a man of exceptional intelligence and even more exceptional ego. Umberger is his eccentric wife Lavinia, whom he neglects and scorns.
Sporting a Mephistophelean goatee and moustache, flashing his eyes and biting off his words with the crispness of frozen twigs snapping, Burchette makes Marcus Hubbard an entrancing character. When this man who reads Greek, writes music, plays the violin and dominates all around him through will, charisma and force of intellect is threatened by his equally greedy but uncultured son, it is easy to find oneself rooting for the old cynic.
Burchett's performance, sharply drawn, fiercely concentrated and yet completely believable, is well matched by Umberger's gentler, graceful, but equally well-crafted picture of his odd wife. Umberger is all aflutter with her memory lapses, her obsession with a mission to the ``colored children'' and her fear of her husband. Like Burchette, she renders her somewhat outlandish character wholly credible.
Lavinia's fixation on sin and religion verges on a mania. It gradually becomes evident that some suspected misdeed in Marcus' past is the key to her emotional distress and to the hatred with which the genteely impoverished neighboring planters regard the Hubbards.
Hellman juggles a couple of sub-plots involving Regina Hubbard, the young spoiled daughter; her first love, Capt. Bagtry; Bagtry's young sister Birdy; and Oscar Hubbard, a dull, bigoted and drunken night-riding son. The central conflict develops in fine Freudian fashion, between heir-apparent Ben and his father.
Mark Curtis plays Ben forcefully, with a villainous glee that stops just short of rubbing his hands and cackling like Snidely Whiplash. Curtis' strength becomes most apparent in the final scene, as his similarity to the man he has been opposing surfaces.
The detail and grace evident in many of the less prominent roles earn praise for the cast in general. Special note is made of Charity Jones as Lavinia's devoted servant Coralee, David Olson as Oscar, Julie Baber as Birdy, Paula Vaiden as Regina, Misty Dawn Tabor as Oscar's low-born girlfriend Laurette and veteran Horace ``Mac'' McManus as Col. Isham.
The hand of the director is evident in the consistency of these performances. Sills has brought an unstrained air of credibility and a sense of quiet competence to the whole show.
There may be some lively debates about the use or disuse of accents in this show. When community players are faced with the Southern dialects of 1880, which are probably as varied and as foreign to our ears today as British speech, a director can take one of two approaches.
Attempting to reproduce the accents invites a laughably contrived sound. It is probably better to do as this production does, letting the non-professional try to catch the sense of the speech patterns while using his or her natural voice.
The lush set, the lighting, the costumes and the natural way Sills moves her players about the stage all combine to make ``Another Part of the Forest'' a good-looking show. Jorja Jean designed the set, the crucially important decor and the costumes. Kim Mitchell and Kay Burcher designed the light, Marilyn Abernathy the hair styles and makeup. ILLUSTRATION: WHEN & WHERE
``Another Part of the Forest,'' by Lillian Hellman at 8 p.m. April
14, 15, 21 and 22 and 3 p.m. April 23 at Little Theatre of Virginia
Beach on Barberton Drive. Call 428-9233.
by CNB