Every Livin’ Soul @ Core Theatre
—Sam Lisman
It almost seems as if William Cameron’s Every Livin’ Soul, now playing at The Core Theatre, is actually two separate plays. It isn’t, of course, but it feels that way.
That “first” play is a pretty standard Great Depression (failing-family-farm-slash-kitchen-table) drama. Hannah (Donna Moore McNamara) was widowed a year ago, not long after the chicken coop burned down on their northwest Ohio farm—which, as we’re in the 1930s, is behind on the mortgage. Her younger brother Herk (Matt Gunter) and his wife Dot (Megan Tormey) live in a bungalow on the farm, where they also work. Hannah’s son, much to Dot’s dismay, is not at home working on the farm, but in Pittsburgh, studying engineering at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (today called Carnegie Mellon University). Much of the first act revolves around this conflict, and the simmering resentments and grudges that make family life so much fun.
Dot seems to harbor the bulk of these. Her husband isn’t too bright; he spends too much time at the bar or reading crime magazines; her sister-in-law won’t implement Dot’s crop rotation scheme; she’s had a series of pregnancies that ended in sadness; her loved-ones aren’t Christian enough. (Dot not only speaks to Jesus, but he answers her back on any number of subjects—including crop rotation.) And she’s adamant that SIL Hannah must stop feeding the destitute folks who occasionally stop by the farm.
Herk, meanwhile, is fixated on a rumor he heard in town: that two well-dressed bank robbers were rousted from their hiding place on the outskirts. One’s been caught, but the second is (as they say) on the lam.
So when a handsome stranger named Choc (Tim Llewellyn) is drawn to the farmhouse by the smell of pies cooling on a windowsill, myriad possibilities arise. Is he just the simple, hungry fellow he claims to be, travelling to get work with a friend in Youngstown? Might he be the bank robber Herk keeps yammering about? Will this rather depressing drama suddenly turn into The Bridges of Madison County? Could he somehow be the solution to the money problems plaguing the family?
While I’m obviously not going to answer those questions, I will say that the play, as one can imagine, becomes more interesting and much livelier once Choc shows up. And thank goodness he does—I’m not sure I could have handled another hour of The Real Farm Wives of Depression-Era Pennsylvania.
Prior to Choc’s arrival, the dialogue is rather pedestrian, which limits the actors. However, all four are quite skilled in conveying authentic reactions—a real plus, and something often overlooked by actors more concerned with getting their lines out correctly. Moreover, McNamara truly lights up when talking about her son’s accomplishments and the glories of his university, displaying the pride we’ve all seen in mothers’ bragging about their academically gifted children. And again, the dynamics completely change with Llewellyn’s introduction, allowing all of the actors more opportunities to become, at last, multidimensional.
Cameron’s play is directed by Core founder James Hansen Prince, with the assistance of David Keller. The very solid sound effects (Herk’s shotgun rounds as he tries to scare off the crows, the various vehicles in the distance), as well as the lighting, are designed by Kye Lewis, while the excellently recreated farmhouse kitchen goes uncredited beyond thanking the cast for donating the props (and costumes).
The play’s title, Every Livin’ Soul, refers to what the siblings’ father used to say, that there’s good in every living soul. And while I won’t go so far as to affirm that sentiment, I will say that the play accurately reflects the hard times and desperation of farm life during the Depression, while raising a number of larger questions about fairness, situational ethics, and perhaps even what it means when people say they live a Christian life. Woody Guthrie, I think, would have approved. And, if you can make it to the second act, things really do pick up.
WHEN: Through February 26
WHERE: 518 W. Arapaho Road, Richardson
WEB: coretheatre.org
