We know Margaret Mitchell was a meticulous editor, that she soured on autographing copies of her famous book and that she was steadfast in her refusal to write a sequel.
In Melita Easters’ one-woman play, starring Kandace Christian, we learn much more, particularly about the "Gone With the Wind" author's younger days. She struggled with depression, she only felt she ever did one selfless thing in her life, she was practiced in the art of flirtation and delighted in toying with male colleagues at The Atlanta Journal. She also found fiendish fun -- and inner conflict -- in her “penchant for the bizarre” elements of human behavior.
All these traits contributed to a woman who often viewed herself a fish-out-of-water in the Piedmont Driving Club debutante days of 1920s Atlanta.
Easters first produced the play in 1992. The production at the Ansley Park Playhouse that runs through June 19 has been updated to incorporate new research and vintage newsreels and photographs that roll on a screen between scenes.
Christian delivers the script like she’s having a private, tell-all conversation with the audience. What results is a warts-and-all yet reverent portrayal that reveals more about being different in polite Southern society than it does about the obvious high notes of Mitchell’s fame.
Easters derived the characterization primarily from published and unpublished letters kept in one of the largest repositories of Mitchell’s correspondence at the University of Georgia, which contains more than 100,000 carbon copies of sent mail. New information about Mitchell that comes to light routinely Easters fuses into the script.
“Until this spring, we hadn’t seen her correspondence with [GWTW actress] Hattie McDaniel and until a couple years ago, we hadn’t seen her letters to [Atlanta educator] Benjamin Mays, so you have a new stash of stuff every so often that becomes publicly published,” Easters said.
“Mrs. John Marsh ... The World Knew Her as Margaret Mitchell.” 2 p.m. June 14, 15 and 19. 8 p.m. June 16, 17 and 18. $25. Ansley Park Playhouse, 1545 Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-875-1193. www.ansleyparkplayhouse.com.
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