The Jacksonian
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Cititour.com Review
Audiences who know Beth Henley only from her quirky Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy, “Crimes of the Heart,” are in for a bit of a shock while watching “The Jacksonian,” now being presented by The New Group and the Geffen Playhouse at Theatre Row. But, honestly, everyone will be shocked at times during this creepy – and sometimes creaky – Southern Gothic drama that owes debts to everyone from Tennessee Williams to Stephen King. Luckily, even in its most puzzling passages, a brilliant cast of five under Robert Falls’ direction rarely fails to command our attention.
Set in the Mississippi motel that lends the work its title in 1964, the work opens with the image of a man with blood on his shirt, and our narrator – a pimply-faced girl – making vague mention of murder. Soon enough, we learn the man is Bill Perch (Ed Harris), a seemingly straight-laced local dentist, and the girl is his unhappy teenaged daughter Rosie (the extremely impressive Juliet Brett). Bill, who turns out to have both significant issues with anger and a fondness for illegal substances, has been living in the motel since May, when he was asked to leave his home by his wife Susan (Amy Madigan, Harris’ real-life wife), an aging Southern belle with some mental problems of her own.
Interacting with this unhappy family are the hotel’s tight-lipped, vaguely sinister bartender Fred (a barely recognizable Bill Pullman), and his “fiancée”, chambermaid Eva (Glenne Headly). When Eva finally realizes that Fred is reneging on his promise to marry her, she goes after Bill -- with less-than-felicitous results.
Throughout the play, Henley clearly wants to remind us what the attitudes of the deep South were back in 1964, especially through Eva’s constant racist commentary. Unfortunately, the social messaging never fully gels with the mystery elements of the piece, which include not only how Harris ended up with blood on his shirt, but the quickly resolved issue of who killed a woman at a nearby Texaco station.
Each of the veteran actors is to be praised for their unflinching commitment to these off-center characters, who are often asked to act in almost unspeakable ways. As great as Harris and Pullman are, it’s a particular pleasure to see the sublime, occasionally hilarious Headly, and the extraordinary, touching Madigan, both of whom have been absent from the New York stage for 20 years.
The Jacksonian is not a place one would want to stay very long, but this 90-minute visit reaps enough rewards to make it worth stopping by.
[Photo (top) by Monique Carboni]
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.theatrerow.org/theacorn.htm
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/25/2013
Closing 12/22/2013
Theatre Info
Acorn Theatre
http://www.epictheatrectr.org/
Neighborhood: Hell's Kitchen
New York, NY 10036
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