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A Letter to Three Wives Repertory Actors Workshop (ReAct) at the Theatre Off Jackson By Mark Englehart, Seattle.Sidewalk |
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| Letter perfect: Amy Waschke, Colleen Burke and Ellen Dessler in A Letter to Three Wives. |
| Premise: Three women receive a letter from the conniving "friend" who's caused waves in all their marriages, saying she's left town with one of their husbands. Problem is, she doesn't say which husband. Pitch: All My Children meets All About Eve. Pedigree: Adapted from Joseph L. Mankiewicz's classic 1949 soaper, which won Oscars for Best Director and Screenplay. All ReAct productions feature a multi-ethnic cast, and proceeds go to charity. Audience: Anyone who enjoys a good melodrama; those who've lost their significant other to a supposed "friend"; fans of the movie. Verdict: Although A Letter to Three Wives walks like a soaper, talks like a soaper and looks like a soaper, it's really much more — a sly satire on '40s suburban values, a heartfelt (and complex) examination of marriage and a surprisingly affecting tale of friendship between three women. Katherine (Amy Waschke) is the farm girl turned Navy girl who meets and marries Don (Joseph Yang) during the war; Nora (Colleen Burke) is the successful career woman who's making more money than her schoolteacher husband George (Gordon Hendrickson); Darla (Ellen Dessler) is the gal from the wrong side of the tracks who hooks up with rich entrepreneur Porter (T.J. Langely). A thorn in all their sides is the conniving Eva Ross, who never fails to poke and prod at the three women's insecurities: Katherine hates her because she was Don's childhood sweetheart, Nora is envious of George's intellectual closeness with her, and Darla doesn't have the "class" Eva possesses and that her husband desires. When the three friends get that fateful letter, they're forced to re-examine their marriages and wonder — who left with Eva? Mankiewicz's film is a classic among "women's" films (and surprisingly modern for its 1949 setting) and presaged the feminine insecurities he'd later explore with a vengeance in All About Eve. Director/adapter Shandell Sosna's re-imagining of the play (including some name changes) is serviceable and amiable, marred only by some clunky staging and a few awkward transitions between scenes. Her primary asset is her work with the actors — for such a large ensemble cast, there's hardly a misstep, each etching an indelible portrait. Waschke is both expertly dramatic and comedic when, in a fit of anxiety, Katherine gets drunk upon first meeting her husband's friends. Burke never loses her cool as Nora gives a fiasco of a dinner party, and gives Nora's concessions to her marriage a decidedly independent nature — they're her decisions, not her husband's. Dessler and Langely are standouts, infusing the very clichéd poor girl/rich man love story with poignancy and humor (they enliven every scene they're in), and the affable Hendrickson possesses a quick wit and great timing as well as fantastic looks (you really don't want him to leave his wife!). And as the unseen Eva, who narrates the story, Deborah LaBounty works sheer, supple wonders with just her honey-dripping voice. It won't erase fond memories of the movie, but if it's an actors' banquet you're looking for, this Letter certainly earns a stamp of approval. |