Can you really ever go back home again? Horton Foote's 1953 drama The Trip to Bountiful offers a poignant yes and no.
It's with The Trip to Bountiful that the Goodman Theatre's 2008 Horton Foote Festival comes to a fine finish. True, most of the main ingredients of this fine production are New York imports from the Signature Theatre Company's 2005 award-winning off-Broadway production. But get over your Windy City pride, since this largely Big Apple transfer proves to be a deeply emotional and enriching journey.
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Lois Smith in The Trip to Bountiful. Photo by Michael Brosilow. Playwright: Horton Foote.
At: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn. Phone: 312-443-3800; $23-$75. Through April 6
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Besides celebrating the work of Foote ( best known for his Academy Award-winning adapted screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird ) , the raison d'etre of reviving this subtle Southern drama is to showcase Lois Smith's emotionally resonant performance. Sure, Geraldine Page may have won an Academy Award playing the role in the 1985 film adaptation, but Smith's performance is certainly something to be relished live.
Smith, a Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member, plays the elderly widow Carrie Watts, who lives in a small Houston apartment with her middle-aged son, Ludie ( Debon Abner, who plays him both weary and sad ) . It's been 20 years since they both had to leave their home in Bountiful, a small farming community that slowly died out during the Great Depression.
Carrie is restless and spends most of her time plotting a furtive visit to Bountiful. And who can blame her when we see how she has to put up with Jessie Mae ( Hallie Foote ) , her henpecking and self-centered daughter-in-law?
Hallie Foote makes Jessie Mae into an aging Southern belle who doubles as an endearing tyrant in a teapot. In small doses, her genteelly controlling nature is extremely amusing. But to live with her constantly would be grating on the soul and Foote is spot on with her portrayal.
When Carrie's does escape, she becomes alive with hope that infectiously spreads to the people she meets on her journey, from the lovely service bride Thelma ( Meghan Andrews ) to the gruff county sheriff ( James Demarse ) . Carrie's plans and wishes don't entirely come true, but they can emotionally prod the audience to ruminate on the losses and passage of time and in their own lives.
Director Harris Yulin finely calibrates the rich acting of the ensemble with E. David Cosier's sleek period sets that cinematically slide on and off in this intermission-less journey. It's a big canvas for a gentle drama where not too much happens dramatically. Yet the reflective emotions in The Trip to Bountiful certainly fill the space.