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Miss Lulu Bett
By Zona Gale
Directed by Frank Merle
Produced by Keyhole Theatre Company
At Josephinum High School
1500 N. Bell
Chicago, IL
Call 773-805-5055, tickets $15
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 PM
Sundays at 7 PM
Running time 1 hrs, 50 min with no intermission
Through December 18, 2005
Miss Lulu Bett’s an early look at women’s liberation
Keyhole Theatre Company, under the leadership of Frank Merle, is quietly and steadily building an excellent theatre company. Merle’s play selection is wise as he balances audience interest with his troupe’s ability to deliver a given play. The result has been mostly stellar work over the past few years. Merle’s theme this season is Pulitzer Prize winning shows. He follows a successful mounting of Proof with the 1921 Pulitzer winner (first by a female playwright), Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale from her best selling novel.
Miss Gale was an early feminist activist and journalist. Miss Lulu Bett was a shockingly unconventional play for 1921 as it dealt with a strong woman whose goal was independence from her family giving her the freedom to make her own choices in life. On today’s standards that is almost a given but in the smothering, controlling world of the early 20th Century, family dominated the individual, especially woman; even more so for adult unmarried woman. Men and husbands made most of the family decisions. Lulu’s struggle for independence in that stiffly atmosphere is Gale’s theme.
Admittedly a dated play, Miss Lulu Bett is a funny, satirical dysfunctional family comedy about ordinary Midwest small town Americans. Reeking with subtle wit and deliciously zany characters in a sort of Adams Family meets Our Town concoction. Lulu’s world contains the demeaning, misogynistic brother-in-law, Dwight (Chuck Riffenburg), whose controlling arrogance is loathsome. Ina (Lisa Butterfield), the vain, stupid (and lazy) sister of Lulu with her precious child, Monona (Erin Killean) and the rebellious (and horny) niece Di (Brittani Ebert). Add the wacky, forgetful mother (Julie Mitre) and Lulu has her hands full as the unpaid housekeeper, cook and servant to the entire family. This was common for an unmarried adult woman of that time. We see Lulu slowly, politely yet firmly decide to be her own person and assert her independence. She does that with a clever story, filled with the mayhem. Once Lulu is gone the family struggles to live without her.
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Without giving away the plot, it can be said that viewed as a nostalgic look back at long gone era, Miss Lulu Bett is spry ground-braking little tale that cutely foreshadowed the independent woman. It stings the narrow minded, possessive family values of rural 20th Century America. Lulu, played effectively and believably by the talented Nicole Adelman, is a legitimate female hero. She is determined to have her independence and the man she loves but on her terms only. We like her and cheer for her.
Miss Lulu Bett is a dated work and that is exactly way Frank Merle mounted it. So we can experience worthy, entertaining plays that made a difference. I’m sure Gale’s show inspired women in the 1920’s.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Chicago Stage Talk Radio Show
This show eligible for a C.S.T. Non-Equity Theatre Award
December 2, 2005
Miss Lulu Bett
Review by Gwen Warner
In this lighthearted look back in time, the comedy, Miss Lulu Bett, (a sparkling performance by Nicole Adelman as Lulu) takes Lulu on a psychological journey from household slave, to woman in love, to an independent woman making her own life choices.
As the play opens, we see Lulu, a spinster slave in her married sister's household, serving the dinner she has made to the family - her sister Ina (Lisa Butterfield), brother-in-law Dwight (Charles Riffenberg), grandmother (Julie Mitre), and daughters Di (Btittany Ebert), and Monona (Erin Killean). Lulu cooks and serves as family members chat, interrupting their conversation with further demands on Lulu. Interspersed throughout are nonstop negative comments on Lulu's abilities to think and to do just about anything. However, like the old time melodrama, all is not lost....a sweet talking man then appears, Dwight's brother Ninian (Colby Turner). An unusual wedding ceremony sends a glowing Lulu off to live happily ever after. But, as often happens, happily ever after is elusive, and Lulu returns. Not for long,however. She's had a taste of love and excitement, and it's enough to give her an attitude with a capital "A".
Although the concept of spinster relative as household drudge is no longer an issue, the character types in this comedy are as real today as then, and the supporting cast is great. The ragtime music keeps the mood light, and the interactions of the sisters are comically typical. For an evening of nostalgia, comedy and romance put this play on your calendar.
Gwen Warner
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