Posted on: Friday, September 17, 2004
STAGE REVIEW
'Lillian' full of the spirit of heroine
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic
Army Community Theatre follows up last season's reading of "The Children's Hour" with a one-woman show based on the life of its playwright, Lillian Hellman.
Luce's script takes place in 1961. Hellman, age 55, is near the bedside of her longtime lover and companion of 30 years, Dashiell Hammett, who is in a coma and dying. Hellman herself approved Luce to write the play, reviewed and corrected his facts, and — just before her death — determined that he had "found her voice."
Although an empty chair represents the deathbed, the reading only occasionally addresses Hammett directly. Instead, it's a meditation by Hellman, who notes that "most memories are all out of order," but that ultimately, "then and now are one."
She was born into her father's upper middle-class family in New Orleans, where she was raised by Sophronia, her wet nurse. Her parents moved north when her father lost his wife's dowry, and Hellman became a troublesome daughter by actively criticizing the materialism and "open ill will" displayed by her mother's family.
When she pawned a ring given to her by an uncle to buy books, he remarked, "So, you've got spirit after all. Most of the rest of them are made of sugar water." Hellman later used the line in her play, "The Little Foxes."
"Lillian" skips over the half-dozen years of her first marriage, and fast-forwards to her relationship with Hammett, which began in 1932. Hammett encouraged her writing but, while she enjoyed theatrical success, her themes ran contrary to contemporary values and to the politics that fired Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Hellman stood by her friends and would not name names. As a result, she was blacklisted and denied work in the 1950s.
But it was Hammett who stimulated Hellman to explore her thoughts through writing and to observe that she enjoyed creating plays more than she did watching them. It is said that Hammett based the character of Nora in his novel, "The Thin Man," on Hellman.
Ultimately, "Lillian" turns back to the dying man, firmly grounding the play in the Hellman/Hammett relationship, which — although not exclusive or continuous — is the touchstone of the drama.
Pruden's reading of the final scene clarifies their connection and emphasizes the human tone over the theatrical or the political.
William Luce's "Lillian stars ACT veteran Jo Pruden and is adapted and directed by Vanita Rae Smith. Its reader's theater format puts extra demands on Pruden, who must single-handedly sustain audience focus for two acts and nearly two hours.
'Lillian'
Hellman's run-on critique of her life and times finally succeeds in drawing a picture of herself as a headstrong woman who pushed those around her as much as she pushed herself. Although the images come jumbled together, the sum result of Pruden's reading helps us to sort out Hellman's biography and piece it back together in chronological order.
Jo Pruden
