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Tuesday, April 17, 2007
‘The Chase’ @ Theatrical Outfit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Notice how the sheriff and his deputies keep their guns hanging on a peg by the office door — and the way the action seems to vibrate from a ringing phone on the desk.
As seen in Theatrical Outfit’s finely executed production of Horton Foote’s “The Chase,” those old-school touches are evidence of the way the beloved Texas-born playwright was influenced by both classic realism and 1950s television. Known as the Chekhov of the small town, the author of “The Trip to Bountiful” and “The Young Man From Atlanta” honed his craft early on as a writer of TV dramas, many of which were later produced onstage.
In fact, the vibe of Golden Age TV is so ingrained in 1952’s “The Chase” — which was made into a disastrous 1966 film starring Marlon Brando and Robert Redford — that it may remind you of vintage episodes of “Gunsmoke” or “The Andy Griffith Show.” But rest assured, the sleepy patina of small-town Americana will soon be interrupted by gunfire, scintillating melodrama and a seesawing, ever-shifting attempt to define exactly who is the hunter — and the hunted.
Though this ethical collision course doesn’t have the majestic sweep of some of Foote’s later works, it’s an archetypal study of the blurry lines between good and evil, the way the politics of power and pettiness are forever rippling at the surface of even the most elemental social structures.
In battling the demon presence of runaway killer Bubber Reeves (Daniel May), Sheriff Hawes (Mark Kincaid) must fight for the salvation of his own soul, so torn is he between civic duty and a personal yearning to repair to a cotton farm with his pregnant wife, Ruby (Cynthia Barrett).
The whole town — merchants, bankers, frantic mothers and all — seems to nip at the heels of Hawes, who must race against time and a growing mob mentality in his search for the flagrantly destructive Bubber. In a bone-chilling sequence, Bubber’s overwrought mother (Jill Jane Clements) even tries to bribe the sheriff and, once spurned, puts a curse on his unborn child.
Hawes, who brings to mind a Texas cousin of Atticus Finch, is a morally upright and responsible man, but he’s pretty inept at tracking down convicts.
Alternately sweet and tough, and ultimately reduced to tears, Kincaid makes a solid Hawes — physically monumental and emotionally conflicted. Still, the actor doesn’t seem to have the presence to occupy the stage for virtually the entire performance, which director Tom Key smartly presents as an intermissionless one act.
Barrett, for her part, gives her most impressive work to date, and some of the best moments come in the tiny details of character actors Bill Murphey, Scott Warren, Rob Lawhon and Victoria Leigh. Eric Mendenhall has such a naturally funny disposition that he gets laughs just for showing up.
Leigh (as Bubber’s estranged wife, Anna) and Lawhon (as Knub, the moonshiner she’s taken up with) provide a fascinating glimpse into the seedy underworld of the rural South, while Mrs. Reeves comes off as a Granny Clampett type bent on spleen and revenge. Clements is pure, white-trash wonderful, and Leigh is a marvel of scrunched-up anxiety and fear.
Juxtaposing the sheriff’s office and the backwoods hideout, R. Paul Thomason’s set is clean, elegant and functional. But unless you enjoy leaning sideways, you may find yourself wishing Key hadn’t positioned so many intimate conversations around a lonely chair at one side of the stage. Sydney Roberts’ costumes seem all of a piece with this Depression-era story, though the pregnant Ruby seems a bit of a clotheshorse for a small-town housewife.
Perhaps the best news to come out of this show is that Foote and Key are keen on collaborations. “The Young Man From Atlanta” has never been seen in this city; Key wants to do it. And “Bountiful” is an exquisite play that deserves to be re-examined again and again. Let’s hope that Foote doesn’t ride off into the sunset with “The Chase.” With more than 60 plays to his credit, the quiet master cuts a swath for all time.
THE 411: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Also, 2:30 p.m. April 21 and May 12. Through May 13. $15-$30. Theatrical Outfit, Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St., Atlanta. 678-528-1500, theatricaloutfit.org.
The verdict: A gripping study of moral decline in small-town America.
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