It would be pure ‘folly’ to miss this 2nd Story Theatre production
Cast delivers humor, heart in ‘Talley’s Folly’
WARREN — The premise of “Talley’s Folly” seems slight. Matt Friedman, a European Jewish refugee, has come to rural Missouri to convince Sally Talley, a died-in-the-wool Midwesterner, to marry him.
In their story, however, playwright Lanford Wilson mines a wealth of insight on human nature and the world at large, on being an outsider, on understanding how life’s joys and disappointments affect our attitudes about ourselves and others, and how, sometimes, it’s healthy to shake off those attitudes. He makes his points with an even-handed subtlety, which may have contributed to this “slight” play earning the 1980 Pulitzer Prize.
The production now at 2nd Story Theatre, moreover, is heartfelt and surprisingly compelling, thanks to superlative work by the two-person cast, artistic director Ed Shea as Matt and Tanya Anderson Martin as Sally. Performing in the round for 90 intermission-less minutes, the actors are under constant scrutiny, and there isn’t a false move to be found.
The setting and the era of Wilson’s play underscore some of his characters’ attitudes. It is 1944, when World War II was changing the world and Lebanon, Mo., with it. Just a year earlier, when Sally first met Matt, she found him, in her word, “exotic,” so different from the family and town from which she already was feeling the need to escape.
Matt was smitten, but he also thought he’d found a soul mate in this enlightened Midwesterner, a nurse whose life centers on her work caring for wounded soldiers. After a year of correspondence, often unacknowledged, he’s back to win her heart.
Their story is something of a mystery: What could bring these very different people together? As they talk, laugh and disagree about their relationship, we learn what life experiences have shaped them. Wilson uses a wonderful analogy of humans being like eggs, each of us with a shell that separates us from others but keeps us intact.
Those gradual revelations – and the waxing and waning emotions that accompany them – keep us fixated. We want to know more about these characters, and in the process, find some things like ourselves.
There is humor and lots of heart in their repartee, and 2nd Story’s actors make moments of connection feel as natural as the times when their defenses go up or they get angry. Martin is sweet and warm as Sally, except when she’s not, and then she displays her character’s iron will. Matt is the kind of guy who uses humor to defuse a situation, and Shea is a master of timing. He’s at his best, however, in a scene in which Sally doesn’t get the humor, and he has no idea why. He’s baffled, but the resolution is pivotal to his relationship with Sally.
The folly of the title could refer to Sally’s family name; to the folly, perhaps, of this unlikely relationship; and to the place where it develops, a boathouse built by Sally’s uncle, an architectural “folie” more decorative than useful. The set at 2nd Story, by Max Ponticelli, re-creates the location with a few benches, creative lighting and the sounds of water, frogs and crickets.
At one point, Sally says she’s always found the frivolous boathouse enchanting. Same could be said for this production: “Talley’s Folly” is enchanting.
Performances continue through April 8 at 2nd Story Theatre, 28 Market St. Tickets are $30, or $25 for persons under age 25 with valid ID. To buy tickets and select seat, visit 2ndstorytheatre.
com or call the box office at 401-247-4200.
The theater now operates a restaurant, Union, on the ground floor of the building, which originally was a French Union Hall. Patrons can go for brunch before Sunday matinees, or for dinner before or after Wednesday through Sunday evening performances. Call the number above for reservations or find information at www.opentable.com/r/2ndstory-theatre-warren.