If you enjoy theater, An Evening With Thornton Wilder is a must see.  And if you only plan to see one play this year, face it.  You need to get out more. 

 

    I attended the opening night of this perfectly marvelous evening of theatre.  The title was misleading.  I thought "An Evening With Thornton Wilder," might be one of those one actor events, like "An Evening With Mark Twain," which launched Hal Holbrook's career.   But it wasn't at all.  There were fifteen actors in this cast, and more than twenty-four different parts, in four separate one-act plays. 

 

    The first play gives a nod to classic Greek theatre, with costumes including faux stone masks.  It's hard to appreciate how much of acting involves facial expressions, until you see  actors wearing masks.  In this story of Apollo's attempt to trick the three demigoddess sisters into leaving their work spinning, measuring and cutting the threads of life, and of the sisters' sometimes successful attempts to make Apollo their fall guy, Mallory Bosch, Leslie Wheeler, Natalie Kelley and Scott Lawrence, tell their tale wearing masks.  Wheeler's interesting voice portrayal of sister Lachesis stands out. 

 

    The second play, "Love and How to Cure It," joins young ballet dancer, Linda, played by Mallory Bosch, in her quest to turn away the comically, tragically unrequited love of Cambridge student, Arthur, played by Scott Lawrence.  Mike Rader, as British comic actor, Joey, and Ashley Wheeldon as aging music hall soubrette (a theater term referring to a saucy, coquettish, young, actress or singer) really bring their characters to life.  The actors made me believe I was backstage in a turn-of-century British gaslight theater, wondering about a murder. 

 

    Third, "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden," takes us to New Jersey, circa 1931, for a visits with the Elmer Kirby family on a motor car trip to visit their married daughter.  Natalie Kelly absolutely shines in her portrayal of the complex, cheerful, deeply caring and wonderfully strong Mrs. Kirby.  Kelly beautifully portrays this wife and mother who is the bedrock and foundation for a slice of Americana that is the Kirby family, lending support to a strong ensemble including Ashley Wheeldon, as the oldest daughter, Beulah, Obadiah Noakes, as the classic 1930s father figure, Elmer Kirby, Gabrielle Braman as wide-eyed and rambunctiously engaging younger daughter Caroline, and Josh Noakes as Caroline's sassy older brother Arthur.  They take us back to a lost and I suspect entirely fictional era. 

 

    Done in the classic Thornton Wilder style, with only the merest suggestion of sets or props, leaving it for these talented actors, with the help of lighting and stage direction, to literally convince us that two stools and a couple of boxes actually become the Kirby family's 1930 Model A Ford.  I could nearly hear the crossing bell clang and feel the rhythm of iron on steel as the Kirbys waited in their car at a railroad crossing.  The simplicity of these sets and props belies the fact that it took four people to build them, yet these stark sets, minimalist props, subtly painted with light and occasional music, in the hands of this fine cast, served to transform the warehouse-like Pepper theater, into a Greek temple, a British theater, a drive through the New Jersey countryside, and the Bayard mansion. 

 

    In another classic Thornton Wilder touch, this third play includes a Stage Manager, played by Dawson Carter.  Carter stands on stage throughout, reading along in the script, sometimes directing actors with the slightest of finger English, and often speaking lines meant for absent bit players.   Wilder doesn't have Carter breach the fourth wall, as he does with his more famous Stage Manager in "Our Town," but he does blur that wall, having Carter move the stools and boxes which create the family auto, as Elmer Kirby tells him, "Young man, please get away from our car."  The illusion is complete. 

 

    The fourth play, "The Long Christmas Dinner," probably more than the others, tells us why Thornton Wilder won three separate Pulitzer Prizes during his career as a novelist and playwright.  It takes us on a journey spanning 90 years, and a succession of Christmas dinners in the dining room of the Bayard mansion.  Obadiah Noakes, Gabrielle Braman, Mallory Bosch, Mike Rader, Ashley Wheeldon, Scott Lawrence, Natalie Kelley, Leslie Wheeler, and Josh Noakes play an array of family members and servants who come and go, as the more things stay the same, the more they change.  Mike Rader, as comical Cousin Brandon perfectly creates the illusion of growing old right before our eyes.  But in the end, it was Leslie Wheeler, who, with a word, a gesture and a glance, brought real tears to my eyes, with her understated but powerful performance as cousin Ermengarde, . 

 

    My brother Larry once observed at a family gathering, "This is like a movie.  We keep coming back to the same scene.  Only everyone is a bit older and one of us is gone."  I couldn't help feel that "The Long Christmas Dinner" was Wilder's way of sharing memories of his own family gatherings over the years of his life. 

 

    This thoroughly enjoyable evening was made more so by the clever work of costume designer Mary Rayon.  What a daunting task this must have been, dressing actors to span more than two thousand years from 405 BC Greece, to post World War I America.

 

    "An Evening With Thornton Wilder," is produced by LCC's Center Stage theatre.  Performances are at the Pepper Theatre, 1538 Commerce Avenue, Longview, Washington, May 24, 25, 26, 27 and June 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10.  Tickets are available at 360-575-8499, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., by e-mail at tickets@columbiatheatre.com, and at the Columbia Theater ticket window two hours prior to performances.  Curtain is at 7:30 p.m..