Playwright: Gloria Bond Clunie. At: eta ( sic ) Creative Arts, 7558 S. South Chicago. Phone: 773-752-3955; $30. Runs through: Nov. 9
This world premiere is the first part of a trilogy about the central female character, Cora Burton, and Gloria Bond Clunie's elegantly simple storytelling makes me eager to see parts two and three. The basic premise of Drip isn't unique, but Clunie handles it with a good sense of theater and with heart. One of the better eta Creative Arts productions of the last few years, Drip is a universal story that doesn't rely on Afrocentrism for its appeal.
Drip is a marriage tale, told in the past and present by a gaggle of townsfolk as a Greek chorus. They introduce young Charlie Burton and Cora, his wife-to-be, and show how they met, courted, married, shared life, had three children and watched one die. Charlie and Cora are honest, likeable, caring and hard-working North Carolina farm folks. They aren't rich, but they employ a couple of farmhands and own a couple of cars, a fishing boat and Red Thunder, a motorcycle. But after 24 years of marriage, they take each other for granted, life has become a routine rut and Charlie—who is not a man of fancy words—still hasn't fixed the leaking faucet. So Cora leaves him, riding off on Red Thunder just as Charlie prepares to renew his attentions.
Drip has several theatrical precedents, such as The Fourposter and The Marriage of Bette and Boo, which follow married couples across the decades. Even Thornton Wilder's Our Town does so to some extent, and Drip matches the folksy feel of Our Town more than it matches the tone of the other plays. Clunie makes the commonplace situation her own by creating two people who are genuinely decent and in love, and by her simple but colorful turn-of-phrase. Who could resist a menu of 'slay-me cole slaw' and 'praise-Jesus pecan pie?' And who can argue with Cora's assertion that she and Charlie 'lost kissin' and holdin' and seein' and words?' Clunie also succeeds in laying on the details—often about food—that make Cora and Charlie's daily life come alive.
A vehicle such as Drip could just lay there in—well—a puddle, but the eta Creative Arts production flourishes under the skilled directorial hand of Cheryl Lynn Bruce, who has assembled an engaging and ingratiating cast, most of whom also have been seen on the North Side. Wide-eyed Ebony Wimbs seems an ideal Cora, attractive but demure, as Kelvin Roston, Jr., as Charlie flashes a vulnerable smile but looks unbreakable. Together, they exude charm without any posing. Their five supporting players—the townsfolk—change hats and roles with ease as church ladies, a doctor, store clerks, a bank teller, and so on, all of them distinct personalities that help create the sense of a close-knit town.