Walking into Swirnow Theater for Talley's Folly, the latest production of Theatre Hopkins, is like stepping back into World War II-era America, with all its political prejudices and hokey sayings. The change is abrupt, as the show launches with a long, energetic monologue that for this younger viewer seemed to ramble on with many obscure cultural allusions.
However, the more elderly audience that Theatre Hopkins caters to clearly enjoyed the well-delivered nostalgia that characterized the entire one-act show.
Talley's Folly is a story of middle-aged courtship. It has none of the sappy puppy love or intense sensuality that characterizes today's boy-meets-girl tales. Instead it explores the insecurities of two unlikely outcasts who find solace in each other's company. The only thing Sally Talley, the wayward spinster daughter of the Missouri town's richest family and Matt Friedman, the Jewish Communist accountant who has the multiplication tables memorized up to 75 times 75, have in common is a haunted past. However, after meeting a year ago in Lebanon, Miss., during a vacation, Matt has written to Sally everyday and has returned to find out whether she returns his affections.
It seems that Matt's hopes are misplaced, but after much verbal sparring, several of the oldest tricks in the book (`Oh sorry, I'm falling --- let me just put my arm around you to keep steady'), and heart-wrenching revelations about Matt's and Sally's pasts, Matt succeeds at getting Sally to try her hand at love once more.
The entire show takes place in one act, in one setting, at one time, in one conversation. Its only movement comes from the monologues of Mick Simon,
playing Matt Friedman, and Stephanie Ranno, playing Sally Talley. In turn, they transport the audience through the past with surprising skill.
Simon's mimicking of Sally's disapproving family provided excellent comic relief, though his mocking Southern drawl was far better than his grating stereotyped Jewish accent. Ranno shone as she flew from rage to sadness to helplessness and back, recounting Sally's failed attempt at love, in a segment that felt so painful and raw that the audience collectively sighed in sympathy.
Both actors clearly got into their characters' heads; their constant bickering felt natural as Simon evaded an exasperated Ranno's questioning with an endless string of bad jokes. Together the actors nailed the awkward chemistry that comes from middle-aged people who are rusty at the dating game.
The ending of Talley's Folly was perhaps too warm and fuzzy, all things tying up in a neat little conclusion, but the overall effect was pleasant and heartwarming. Once the adjustment is made to another time and place and a different sort of love story, the characters become endearing and their tales strike chords in all the audience members, young and old. It provides the viewer a nice respite from the hectic, bustling world just outside the theatre door.
Talley's Folly will be showing in Swirnow Theater in the Mattin Center this coming Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and this Sunday at 2 p.m. General admission is $15 and student rush seats cost $5.
