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The Trip To Bountiful
By Horton Foote
Directed by Harris Yulin
At the Goodman Theatre
170 N. Dearborn
Chicago, IL
Call 312-443-3800, tickets $23 - $75
Wednesdays at 7:30 pm
Thursdays at 2 & 7:30 pm
Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 2 & 8 pm
Sundays at 2 & 7:30 pm
Running time is 1 hour, 50 minutes without intermission
Through April 13, 2008
This Trip is a stunning journey worth taking
Horton Foote’s masterpiece was first a live teleplay in 1953 for The Philco Television Playhouse starring Lillian Gish. It was expanded and mounted on Broadway in late 1953 and it was made into a film in 1985 garnering an Oscar for Geraldine Page. In 2006 legendary actress Lois Smith played Carrie Watts to critical acclaim in NYC’s Signature Theatre. The Goodman Theatre’s production, under the tight direction of Harris Yulin, features the same set (brilliant design by E. David Cosier), has all of the principles from the Signature Theatre production. A wise choice. Lois Smith’s performance as Carrie Watts is a tour de force. Smith’s deeply emotional and truthful performance as Mrs. Watts is filled with subtle nuances that only a master actor can so easily present. We instantly empathize with her character. Smith plays the elderly character with a combination of physical and emotional pain as well as an independent stubborn stick. She is funny yet defiant; determined yet obedient. Her fierce independence to return to her homeland consumes her.
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Horton Foote is know as the Chekhov of American local color writers as he pens works featuring ordinary folks in rural setting struggling with the realities of change that threatens the tranquility of small town life. He isn’t sentimental nor does he gloss over the cruelty of life. Rather he realistically tells life–affirming stories. The Trip to Bountiful may be his finest work.
In The Trip to Bountiful, set in the late 1940’s, we meet Mrs. Carrie Watts who hates living in Huston in a two room apartment with her son, Ludie (Devon Abner) and his self-center wife, Jessie Mae (Hallie Foote). Carrie can’t sleep as she suffers from a suffocating unhappy existence away from her roots. The twenty years living in Huston only makes her yearn for her small town of Bountiful just off the gulf coast of East Texas. Carrie hates being dependant on her son, Ludie, himself a failed businessman and sickly weak soul. Jessie Mae is the bossy dominant head of the household who drives Carrie to try to escape. Foote effectively presents real people whose lives are filled with failed hopes and unfulfilled dreams. Carrie tells about how she was never allowed to marry her true love as both he and she married others. Finally, Carrie escapes from her room and travels to Bountiful. Along the way, she befriends Thelma (Meghan Andrews), a young newlywed filled with hope for the future. We see Carrie’s trip back to an almost dead town as her journey rekindles her memories. She is invigorated with the sky, the birds and the smells of rural land. She gains solace and a new understanding with her son as they put aside much of their pain from the past.
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Lois Smith anchors a marvelous cast that features terrific work from Hallie Foote (the playwright’s daughter) as the selfish daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae. Devon Abner’s Ludie and Meghan Andrews’ Thelma offered excellent work. James Demarse as the Sheriff and Frank Girardeau as Roy supported nicely. But The Trip To Bountiful surly belongs to Lois Smith—she gave a must memorable performance. Get to the Goodman Theatre to experience a master actor wonderfully performing a classic American play. Theatre doesn’t get any better than this.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: March 10, 2008
Jeff Recommended
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