Playwright: Lillian Hellman
At: Writers' Theatre, 325 Tudor Court
in Glencoe
Phone: 847-242-6000; $45-$58
Runs through: Nov. 26
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
Meet the Hubbards of Bowdon, Ala.: Elder son Ben wants to be rich. Younger son Oscar wants to marry a down-on-her-luck aristocrat. Daughter Regina wants to marry a war hero and move to Chicago. Clan patriarch Marcus wants to conceal the foundations of his thriving business. And Mama Lavinia wants to join a religious retreat. By the end of the play, only one of them has attained his or her goal. The others, meanwhile, have made each other—and several innocent neighbors—extremely unhappy through their selfish schemes.
In 1939, American playwright Lillian Hellman introduced the ruthless Hubbard siblings in The Little Foxes. The cruel machinations of these new-world Borgias in the robber-baron society of 1900 proved so popular with audiences that in 1946, the author wrote Another Part of the Forest, a 'prequel' set 20 years earlier, following the, uh, War Between The States ( as the Civil War is called south of the Mason-Dixon Line to this day ) , revealing the roots of the bitter filial malaise.
Many of the characters are archetypes now grown familiar from the extensive literature inspired by their region ( Gone With The Wind, et al. ) . Hellman, a native of New Orleans in the years not long after her play's milieu, draws on firsthand observations of the personalities and attitudes of which she writes, never stooping to mocking caricature in depicting her universe. The outrages perpetrated in the course of the power struggles, however, make for a grimly melodramatic tone as alien to actors in 2006 as to playgoers given to schadenfreude-fueled giggles at each triumphant plot twist.
Fortunately, director William Brown never permits his cast to take refuge in self-conscious posturing. From seasoned character actors Joel Hatch and Penny Slusher, playing the Hubbard parents, to upcoming young artists Matthew Brumlow, Kymberly Mellen and Matthew Holzfeind, who deliver densely-focused performances as the children fighting for money and privilege, this Writers' Theatre production never falters in its conviction. The journey to the North Shore suburbs for a show running almost three hours at press preview may seem a daunting proposal, but ample rewards await those willing to undertake the challenge.
