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The Little Theatre stages the Pulitzer Prize-winning play

MARC MUNROE DION, Herald News Staff Reporter

August 11, 2000

FALL RIVER -- Sally Talley’s brother Buddy has a shotgun.

This is not surprising, as the play "Talley’s Folly" is set in Lebanon, Mo., in 1944.

That shotgun ownership was common in 1944 Missouri is not the focal point of the play, but audience members are reminded often of Brother Buddy’s shotgun and the potential for bloodshed.

In the play, Matt Friedman, a St. Louis accountant, and Sally Talley, a woman of some fire, spend an evening falling in -- and out -- of love in the Talley family boathouse. No other actors are needed, and actors Bing McGrath and Shael Colantonio are on the stage every minute.

"It’s tough," McGrath said of the play. "There’s a lot of dialogue, and you never get off stage."

Colantonio agreed that there is a tremendous amount of pressure put on the actors in a two-person show, but said there is an upside.

"I think it’s actually easier to keep your concentration," Colantonio said of being one of only two characters in a play.

McGrath said that one of the most interesting things about the play is that Matt and Sally are both mature people with the troubles of mature people.

"He has baggage and she has baggage," McGrath said.

Some of their baggage is, of course, religious and cultural. The Talleys are backwoods types, honorable but unsophisticated in a lot of ways.

Friedman is a Jew, a fact that may not be bothering Sally, but is certainly one of the reasons why Brother Buddy has the hammer back on his shotgun.

Playwright Lanford Wilson won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for this play, a wonder considering that all he had to work with was two people in a boathouse.

But what people they are!

Briefly, here’s the story:

The date is July 4, 1944. A year ago, Matt Friedman, visiting Lebanon, took Sally Talley home from a dance.

After the dance, the two did not end up in the Talley parlor. Rather, they ended up in the boathouse, where Sally’s father used to make whiskey and where she and Friedman made love.

Whatever the night meant to Sally, it meant love to Friedman, who retreated to St. Louis, where he thought about Sally and wrote her letters, a lot of letters.

Friedman is back now, a year later, and in the boathouse he hopes to convince Sally of his love. An immigrant from Eastern Europe, Friedman is very different from the heart-of-America Talleys, but he is also kind, funny, wise, frightened and tender. He is, in short, nearly irresistible.

Sally Talley, however, is a pro at resistance. Oh, she may give her body on occasion -- and rare occasions at that -- but she holds her love back, keeps her soul safe, guards the essential her that cannot be given or taken in a kiss. She is lovely, infuriating, sexy, spiny, heartbreakingly sweet and terminally proud. She is a prize to win, but the win won’t be an easy one.

Sally is played by Shael Colantonio who brings to the role a certain sweet snappishness, the pretty conceits of the wasp with the sharp sting. She holds Friedman at arms length for a lot of reasons, but as the play goes on we realize that Sally’s fear is not fear of love, but fear of loving, of leaping into the abyss, of flying blind.

Watching the actors rehearse this play, it’s easy to be struck by the rightness of McGrath for his role.

"It’s funny," McGrath said. "I was born on July 4, 1945 and the play takes place on July 4, 1944. Friedman is a Lithuanian immigrant, and I’m part Lithuanian."

The similarities in dates and ethnicity, though, are not why McGrath is good in this one. Watching a rehearsal, it’s easy to see that McGrath is comfortable in Friedman’s skin, and Friedman’s sardonic, sweet speeches fit McGrath’s somewhat bearish stage presence very well.

This is not to discount Colantonio’s turn as Sally. It would be easy to play Sally as a shrew, or worse yet as a Southern simperer waiting to be convinced that a man can make it better.

Colantonio’s Sally does neither exclusively, although both extremes are in her performance. Colantonio’s Sally is a well-rounded, if damaged woman, who is Friedman’s match as much as she is his desire. Sally brooks no foolishness, and she knows that love bought cheaply is held cheaply.

Sally is the kind of woman who says, "I don’t want to argue," just before she begins to really fight.

If you think you couldn’t watch a play that begins with a four-page monologue and continues with only two characters on stage, think again. Whether you like love stories, against-all-odds stories or just well-written dialogue, you’ll like this one.

And what happens with these two? What happens with love and religion and boathouses and lust and Brother Buddy’s shotgun? Well, you have to buy a ticket to find out, but suffice it to say that you won’t want this one to end, and you’ll leave knowing a little more about the human heart and a lot more about why Lanford Wilson won a Pulitzer for this dark, hopeful play.

The Little Theatre of Fall River will have performances Aug. 18, 19, 24-26 at 8 p.m., and on August 20 and 27 at 7 p.m. General admission seating is $10. Student, children, senior citizen and group rates are also available. For information and reservations, call 675-1852.

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