Feigelson’s ‘Moon Vine’ dazzles

There’s a lot to love about Teri Feigelson’s “Moon Vine,” a Southern Gothic play making its world premiere at TheatreWorks.

This play (as was Feigelson’s first one, “Mountain View”) was a winner of Playhouse on the Square’s NewWorks@TheWorks playwriting competition, which finds fresh stories and brings them to the stage.

“Mountain View” was produced last year and made its mark, winning Ostrander Award recognition for best original script and a special award for original music and musicians.

“Moon Vine” is set in the Delta in the 1970s in a farmhouse occupied by Sele Byrne and on occasion by her wandering younger brother Huck. It once was a thriving property but is losing battles on several fronts, including deteriorating land, the spread of Wal-Marts and the insidious presence of corporate agriculture.

Feigelson’s dialogues are immensely appealing, with characters telling tales with charming and witty Southernisms. Bekka Koch and Dane Van Brocklin as sister and brother are at the center, and both do terrific work, showing sibling love and prickliness as they try to sort out what’s going to happen to the family farm.

There’s a wonderful performance by Curtis C. Jackson, whose Eli is the glue that holds the property together, and a delightful turn by Karin Barile as good neighbor Ida May, whose whimsical presence brings a dizzy normality.

The tale works well in the telling with splendid words, quirky characters and reflections on family and life on the land. I’d have been happy to hear them meander on without much of a plot, but Feigelson marches it on to an overwrought denouement that felt out of place with what had gone on before. Some might say it’s a fitting Southern Gothic finale, but, Lord have mercy, it seemed soapy to me.

That said, it is otherwise a compelling drama, full of wit and meaning and freshness. Ken Zimmerman’s direction was spot on.