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Abby Huston and Lewis Wheeler in “Last Train to Nibroc.” |
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Lewis Wheeler as Raleigh in “Last Train to Nibroc.” |
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All aboard: ‘Last Train’ is right on schedule
THEATER REVIEW
From the first 60 seconds that pull the audience out of their seats and onto a train hurtling cross country to the final scene where mistakes and missteps, along with waylaid hopes, all get made right, “Last Train to Nibroc” arrives at the station carrying a solid night of theater.
“Last Train” is the spring production for the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater at the Julie Harris Stage on Route 6 in Wellfleet next to the Post Office. Directed with a delicate touch but tightly by Stephen Russell, the play is the first full-length work by Arlene Hutton. Although simple in that it only has two characters, the play takes on the anything-but-simple task of keeping the audience thoroughly engaged for 90 minutes with nothing but a two-person conversation and some great scenery (Andrew Arnault), costumes (Mary Jo Horner) and lighting (John Malinowski).
Abby Huston plays May, the buttoned-up-tight wannabe missionary who opens the play sitting on a train somewhere in the Midwest headed for Corbin, Kentucky, from California. When we first see her it’s like an Edward Hopper urban landscape come to life as her face is etched in deep shadows and a somber look. It’s during WWII and May has been to see her boyfriend, who is stationed on the West Coast and headed for active duty. She thought he shared her dreams of noble church work in heathen lands, but it seems he has changed since he left Kentucky, and the man she hoped to marry, maybe even on this trip, is not the man she finds. So she’s on her way home to rethink her life and dreams.
Through the train’s passage door comes Raleigh, played by Lewis Wheeler. He, too, is a man in uniform, but not for long. His hopes of becoming a flyer died when a previously unknown medical condition was discovered. His dreams have also been left behind, but while May sees only a retreat to safety he imagines the train might take him on to a brighter future in New York City as an author. He feels sure that the fact that the coffins of Nathaniel West and F. Scott Fitzgerald are both on this train with him is more than coincidence, it’s fate.
But fate, it seems, has other plans for both May and Raleigh. He sits with her and tries to jolly her out of her serious pose. He charms, teases, cajoles and is truly taken aback when she finally comes back at him.
“You can tease a dog but you don’t like its bark,” she snaps at him at one point.
Their verbal sparring is like a dance stepping forward and back. And like a beautifully executed dance, it’s a pleasure to watch and listen to.
Turns out Raleigh lives two towns over in rural Kentucky and even has cousins who live across from May’s family farm. And, turns out, he even knew her boyfriend and had seen her photo before meeting her on the train. They hit it off and start to generate a few sparks, but she still goes home and he goes on to find his future.
When the second scene begins we find them in a park in Corbin outside the Nibroc Festival two years later. From bits and pieces we find that he had come back to Kentucky and that they dated but stopped for some reason. She’s become a teacher, and a traveling preacher is trying to woo her away to a life of revivals and tent meetings. He is hoping for another chance but that seems very remote.
The third scene picks up a year later. A lot has changed, not the least of which is our two characters. May has grown stronger in every scene and found more of herself. Raleigh has overcome illness and hard times and goes back to revive his dreams of becoming a writer. How they resolve their unfinished business with a combination of humor and pathos makes for a satisfying end.
The dialogue is so well honed. Like life, it makes you laugh and then pulls you up short. There are plenty of nods to the southern genre of writing and the playwright uses that open-handed sense of drama judiciously to evoke a depth of feeling without ever going too far or falling from character into caricature.
These two actors turn in spot-on, not-to-be-missed performances. Hungry for theater? Sink your teeth into this one.
Last Train to Nibroc, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on Route 6 presents performances Fri. and Sat. at 8 pm and Sun. at 3 pm through April 13. Tickets are $26 to $29. (508) 349-9428.
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Apr 10th, 2008