{"id":17407,"date":"2015-04-12T18:31:29","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T01:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=17407"},"modified":"2015-04-13T17:54:30","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T00:54:30","slug":"aurora-theatre-stages-pulitzer-prize-winning-play-in-berkeley-on-southern-bias-conflicts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/aurora-theatre-stages-pulitzer-prize-winning-play-in-berkeley-on-southern-bias-conflicts\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora stages Pulitzer-winning play on Southern bias, conflicts"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 2.5]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

In \u201cTalley\u2019s Folly,\u201d Sally (played by Lauren English) has trouble explaining her past to Matt (Rolf Saxon). Photo by David Allen.<\/p><\/div>\n

She’s in a dual struggle \u2014 to transcend prejudices of her redneck family and to deflect ridiculing of her singsong name, Sally Talle.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s in an uphill battle to conquer his fears of remaining an underdog and misfit.<\/p>\n

And to neutralize her anxiety about being adversely linked with him.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re an unlikely pair of walking wounded, unlikely to triumph over her kin\u2019s biases.<\/p>\n

Whether they eventually can is the puzzlement of \u201cTalley\u2019s Folly,\u201d a two-character drama that won a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1980 and is currently being revived by the Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley.<\/p>\n

I found the new, 97-minute production much like life itself \u2014 sometimes electrifying and fast-moving, sometimes sluggish enough to be doze-worthy.<\/p>\n

It also made me remember a classic Yogi Berra phrase: It\u2019s d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.<\/p>\n

“Talley\u2019s Folly\u201d focuses on circa-World War II differences in religion and class \u2014 and on a prickly intimacy achieved through verbal and physical dances of love on the Fourth of July, 1944.<\/p>\n

And because it\u2019s replete with a glut of references to barefaced anti-Semitism, it repeatedly jerked me forward to scary 2015 headlines from Europe.<\/p>\n

Sally\u2019s family was once one of the two wealthiest in Lebanon, Missouri, a community that happens to be prolific playwright Lanford Wilson\u2019s real hometown.<\/p>\n

So the Talleys had severe expectations of her \u2014 the gentile princess.<\/p>\n

Matt Friedman, a Lithuanian-born Jewish accountant from St. Louis, arrives unexpectedly after a year away \u2014 to persuade Sally, a nurse\u2019s aide once fired as a Christian Sunday School teacher, that he loves her and that she should escape with him.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s disregarded her not answering his letters.<\/p>\n

They verbally fence in her family\u2019s rundown boathouse (the physical folly of the title). They talk and talk and talk, and finally swap secrets (which, in my opinion, dovetail a little too easily).<\/p>\n

Insults become part of the mix.<\/p>\n

She accuses him, for instance, of not having \u201cthe perception God gave lettuce.\u201d<\/p>\n

He in turn knocks her family (particularly brother Buddy, who apparently can\u2019t see him as anything but a semi-human outsider\/Communist-socialist\/traitor).<\/p>\n

Lauren English plays Sally with Southern drawl and demeanor intact, opposite Rolf Saxon, who\u2019s utterly convincing as the urbane Matt.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalley\u2019s Folly\u201d is a serious play laced sporadically with humor.<\/p>\n

Especially funny is Matt\u2019s rambling opening monologue to the audience (which he repeats at breakneck speed).<\/p>\n

Imitations of Humphrey Bogart and a repugnant German likewise evoke amusement.<\/p>\n

For most of the play, though, Sally and Matt are both awkward, \u201cprivate people\u201d trapped in their histories and what she might have called their Sunday best.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if they were pimply teenagers at ages 31 and 42.<\/p>\n

And they essentially resemble one of his verbalized thoughts: Because people are like eggs, they must be careful not to bump into each other too hard.<\/p>\n

The play was directed by Joy Carlin, a Bay Area theatrical hall-of-famer who portrayed Sally in the 1979 American Conservatory Theater production of \u201cFifth of July,\u201d the last part of Wilson\u2019s trilogy, which the Aurora will reprise from April 23 through May 17.<\/p>\n

Although \u201cTalley\u2019s Folly\u201d \u2014 which acts as a prequel within that trilogy \u2014 is filled with conflicts, it\u2019s almost action-less.<\/p>\n

Which makes Carlin\u2019s task of injecting life nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

She actually does amazing well considering the loquacious raw material Wilson provides.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalley\u2019s Folly\u201d runs at Harry\u2019s UpStage at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through June 7. Night performances, Tuesdays, 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $30-35. Information: www.auroratheatre.org<\/a> or (510) 843-4822.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or at www.vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 2.5] She’s in a dual struggle \u2014 to transcend prejudices of her redneck family and to deflect ridiculing of her singsong name, Sally Talle. He\u2019s in an uphill…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"