The Trip to Bountiful @ Core Theatre
—Sam Lisman
Watching the scenes of domestic bliss that make up the first half of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful at The Core Theatre reminded me of why I choose to live alone. While I know that Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit preceded Bountiful, I don’t know if Foote was deliberately trying to elaborate on Sartre’s line that “Hell is other people”—but to my mind, he succeeded, at least in the opening scenes of the play.
It’s 1947 in a small apartment in Houston, home to Ludie (Bryan P. Madden), his wife Jessie Mae (Anna Carroll), and his mother Carrie (Mary Tiner). Ludie is a weak, insignificant man, caught between two powerful, conflicting women. Carrie, with a monomaniacal drive that would impress Captain Ahab, desperately wants to return to Bountiful, the Gulf Coast hometown of her childhood. Jessie Mae is an entitled narcissist, who just wants her mother-in-law to do as she’s told (and sit quietly in the corner until she dies). Ludie cares deeply about his mother, but believes her dream is foolish—and more importantly, wants to remain on his demanding wife’s good side.
Since the title contains the spoiler, I don’t feel badly stating that much of the play is about Carrie’s desperate exodus (which today we call a Silver Alert). Along the way, she encounters three Greyhound employees (Robin Daffinee Coulonge, Miracle Lewis, and Jeff McIntosh), a small-town Sheriff (Daniel White), and Thelma (Tomaiah Bradley), easily the most likable (and pitiable) character in the play: likable because she’s a decent, stand-up person who goes out of her way to help someone in need; pitiable because one moment of polite small talk forces her to put up with Carrie for long hours on the bus.
I was impressed by the four lead actors. Carrie is not an easy role, but Tiner played her with the right mix of determination, anxiety, maternalism, and screwiness. Madden’s Ludie is as tired as he is hen-pecked. He wants to be protective of his mother, but ultimately he’s kind of useless. Jessie Mae is someone we can love to hate, and Carroll dives in head first, offering not the slightest reason for the audience to side with her; she was fully unsympathetic (which is the point). Bradley’s Thelma, conversely, was as sweet as she was lovely, taking care of a complete stranger because it was the right thing to do.
The set was impressive. The one-bedroom apartment folded and rolled away at intermission like the proverbial well-oiled machine, while the facade of the old house in Bountiful looked like it might collapse under a stiff Gulf breeze. Kudos to set designer (and artistic director) James Hansen Prince, who also designed the lighting. The costumes (by actress Robin Coulonge) were authentic and appropriate, right down to Thelma’s white gloves. Stan Kelly’s direction kept the actors moving around, using all of the stage to tell this story.
I think the three main characters of the play would look enviously at the retirement homes we have available (for a price) in today’s world. How much happier would Jessie Mae be if she weren’t trapped in the tiny apartment with Carrie day after day, listening to her sing hymns or watching her sulk in front of the window? How much better would Carrie’s life be living in a community of her peers, with activities and events? And once the two women were happy, wouldn’t Ludie’s life stop being such a soul-crushing slog? Sadly, that option wasn’t readily available.
WHEN: March 24-April 9
WHERE: 518 W. Arapaho Road, Richardson TX
WEB: thecoretheatre.org
