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review Go to any big city in America, and you'll find a strong theater scene. Every night, genres fight for your attention: Shakespeare, improv, domestic realism, musicals, absurdism, queer performance art ... it's a real salad bar. In the suburbs, it's meat and potatoes by comparison. In too much of suburban America, there's only one kind of theater on the menu: the theater of comfort. Comfortable theater is what community theaters across the country produce: drawing-room theater that affirms preconceptions about certain kinds of people, and about the way people should react and think in times of crisis. Comfortable theater is ruled by what playwright Mac Wellman calls "the tyranny of the already known." Suburbia's desire for comfortable theater explains the enduring appeal of Robert Harling's "Steel Magnolias". The huge 1987 hit is now at Anaheim Hills, CA's Chance Theater, a deeply suburban venue that proclaims its dedication to original works but also obviously needs to make money from time to time. Let the register ring. To most people, "Steel Magnolias" is a movie. Julia dies, Sally cries, let's go get a cream rinse. Well, the play isn't too far from the movie, though it's less maudlin. Mercifully, there are no hospital or funeral scenes; its two acts take place on a single set, which is indeed the carport-turned-hairstyling business of one Truvy in fictional Chinquapin, Louisiana. Here six women gather to get their hair done, gossip and trade opinions about everyday life. To most people, "Steel Magnolias" is familiar. Since its story is already widely known, it is thereupon comforting. And there is nothing as comfortable to people who secretly dislike theater as a known story. Several seasons ago, one large Southern California theater (I can't remember whether it was the one north of the 210 or at the end of the 133) advertised a holiday play with the eager claim, "You know the story!" Well, if we know the story, why don't we just rent it? At the Chance, this known story has attracted not only an audience (a capacity house on the night I attended) but also some fine thespians. One of Orange County's better young directors, Amanda DiMaio, applies herself to the task, and her cast includes several terrific actors (Patti Cumby, Mo Arii, Cynthia Ryanen, Tracy Perdue) normally seen at Stages, a much more interesting and adventurous small theatre in Fullerton, CA. Why they are all doing "Steel Magnolias" is a mystery, unless there's a dearth of good women's roles in Orange County theater. You don't know the story of "Steel Magnolias"? I'll make it quick. Shelby, a twentysomething diabetic, gets married and decides to have a baby even though a pregnancy could trigger permanent health problems. Lord, she goes and has the baby. And Lord, she goes on the dialysis machine. And Lord, her momma M'Lynn has to make a decision. Etc. Love and heroism are at the essence of Harling's story. The play is a tribute to his sister Susan, who was also diabetic and who died at age 32 after a similarly discouraged pregnancy. He sat down to write a short story on the day after her death, and emerged with a play ten days later. Harling obviously loved his sister, yet, in a weird kind of way, he seems less loving toward his characters. Shelby, Clairee, Truvy, Ouiser, M'Lynn, and Annelle are drawn with affection, but also the scent of ridicule, of the kind usually associated with the collected works of Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. We are clearly "above" these women, and it's not because we're Californians. They don't seem to aspire to much of anything; they simply accept whatever life hands them. If there's sorrow, it's simply time to get new highlights, or get out, say, Clairee's recipe for Cuppa-Cuppa-Cuppa (a cup of sugar, a cup of flour, a cup of fruit cocktail, mix it and bake 'til brown; maybe that's what killed Elvis). For example, why does Shelby decide to have a baby, even though the ordeal might kill her and leave the child without a mother? Well, that's just what women do: they create babies. You know, in other parts of the world, women do other things -- but ain't none of that really matter 'round here. All actresses have to approach Harling's "realistic" script through these handicaps. These actresses do okay. Erika Ceporius plays Shelby with a cheery, confident, even relaxed optimism that serves the part well. As M'Lynn, Cumby has to carry about half of the play's drama, and she is splendid, pushing the envelope of grief without shredding it. Perdue and Arii do quite well in the more explicitly comic roles of Annelle and Truvy. The consistently great Ryanen is perfect as the wealthy, yet never haughty, Clairee. Karen Franson does what she can with Ouiser, and she plays one note well; Harling basically just has the character show up and be angry in scene after scene. DeMaio has clearly asked her actors to approach this material reasonably and evenly, with no schmaltz, and they have. Unfortunately, it is still the material it is -- tragedy and triumph that, even when well acted, seems a proscenium removed from the intensity and immediacy of the best theater. "Steel Magnolias", Fri-Sun thru May 27 at the Chance Theater, 5576 E. La Palma Ave. Anaheim Hills. $13-15. 714.777.3033. Copyright © 2001 The Write Word, Inc. All rights reserved. |