Two actresses shine in 'Grace and Glorie'

By Adam Szymkowicz, Standard-Times correspondent

"It's because of Eve women suffer like they do," Grace informs Gloria with no hint of irony or sarcasm in her voice, beginning one of many arguments they have throughout the play.

"Grace and Glorie" by Tom Ziegler, dramatizes the relationship between a 90-year-old backwoods Virginian, Grace Stiles (Vivian Silvia) and a much younger former New York City professional, Gloria Whitmore (Bonnie Cade).

Gloria volunteers for Hospice, an organization that, among other things, helps the terminally ill live their last days comfortably. Grace is her uncooperative new assignment. Mr. Ziegler's tightly crafted play explores the differences and similarities between the two women while weaving in sentimentality, jokes, and advertisements for Hospice. Grace is Velveeta and Wonder Bread and Gloria is Brie and lobster. Grace can't read or write and Gloria can't figure out Grace's wood stove. The contrast results in a touching and funny play.

Mr. Ziegler refreshes us with witty dialogue and one-liners just when his subject matter becomes too depressing. For example, Grace, mystified by Gloria's arrival, comments, "Perfect stranger shows up at the door, wants to help me die." When Gloria gets tired, Grace assures her, "You can close your eyes and if I see death coming, I'll wake ya."

Under Ron Robinson's direction, Vivian Silvia delivers Mr. Ziegler's jokes with perfect comic timing. Ms. Cade as Gloria asks, "May I use your phone?" Ms. Silvia responds, "Sure. It's over there," then waits for Ms. Cade to reach the phone before adding, "It don't work, though."

Ms. Silvia displays her talent at physical comedy when Gloria, putting lipstick on Grace, orders her to open her mouth. She pops her lips apart like a baby robin accepting a worm. Earlier in the show, Ms. Silvia proves her acting abilities as she grimaces and grunts in pain, trying to lift herself out of bed. Later, with the eyes of a scared child, she worries about her death. An acting veteran, Ms. Silvia gives a near flawless performance.

Ms. Cade stumbles over a line or two towards the beginning of the play, but shows herself a powerhouse when she shakes and sobs over the death of her character's son.

Furious that God took her son away, she cuts the air with her hands as her voice registers her shrill anger. Ms. Cade uses her expressive face throughout the play, bulging her eyes at Grace's salty comments, and offering polite and sympathetic tight-lipped smiles. She also makes the most of the few funny parts Ziegler gives her as she runs scared from Grace's chickens and hyperventilates when she discovers the construction workers are using dynamite outside Grace's cabin. In the kitchen, when she lifts the lid off the pot, she drops it immediately and her shouts convince me she burns herself even though part of me knows the stove is only a prop.

Director and set designer Ron Robinson excels at keeping the movement of the two women believable and interesting. In a two-person show in which one woman spends a lot of time in bed, it would be easy for the actors to get locked in place. Mr. Robinson avoids that, but allows the actors to face away from the audience more than I would have liked.

Mr. Robinson fills Grace's cabin with the simple, rustic tables and chairs one would expect. While the antique wood stove doesn't function, it looks like it could. Mr. Robinson centers Grace's death bed in the cabin he builds just as the playwright centers Grace's death in the play he builds.

Little Theatre lives up to its name -- an intimate setting where even back-row audience members catch every eye crinkle and hair strand. Because theater, unlike film, relies on the relationship between the audience and the actors, such proximity of actors and audience only enhances the experience for everyone. Actors feed off audience reactions and the resulting energy cannot be duplicated in any cinema; 20 years can pass since you last saw a film, but the film doesn't change. A performance such as last Friday's can never and will never occur again. I only hope if you go, you get a taste of the show I witnessed.

"Grace and Glorie" will be repeated at The Firebarn, Prospect Street and Highland Avenue in Fall River, at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. For ticket information, call (508) 675-1852.

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