Date: Fri 02-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Illustration: I

Location: A10

Quick Words:

Players-theatre-Eleemosynary

Full Text:

(rev "Eleemosynary" @Country Players, 5/2/97)

Theatre Review-

Even If You Couldn't Spell It, "Eleemosynary" Is A Good Play

(with photo)

By Julie Stern

BROOKFIELD - Eleemosynary. You know that word. It's like meretricious or

rodomontade - something that has no existence outside a multiple choice test

designed in New Jersey, where adolescents must decide whether it means (a) "an

ancient Roman official"; (b) "a desert wind"; (c) "part of the digestive

system"; or (d) "excessively gloomy."

So a play of this name by Lee Blessing - whose works (frequently staged in New

Milford) deal very definitely with the real world ranging from baseball ( Cobb

) to terrorism ( Two Rooms ) and serial killers ( Down The Road ) - really

piqued my curiosity. Country Players is presenting Eleemosynary through May

10.

As it turns out, the title refers not to a vocabulary word but a spelling

word, the final stumper which determined the grand championship of the

National Spelling Bee, the winning of which was the crowning achievement in

the life of young Echo Westbrook.

Echo is a child prodigy who has been raised by her grandmother, Dorothea, a

strong-minded woman who never forgave her own parents for denying her a

college education because she was only a girl. In consequence she retaliated

by cramming information into her daughter's head. From earliest infancy

Dorothea introduced the baby to both the Greek and Latin alphabets, as well as

mathematics and chemistry.

The result was that the daughter, Artie, became a brilliant researcher but a

hopelessly dysfunctional human being. Incapable of dealing with a baby of her

own, she leaves her with Dorothea, who happily digs out the old cradle, the

old cardboard letters, and the old routines.

In an attempt to win the respect and attention of the mother who abandoned

her, Echo chooses spelling as a field of endeavor, and memorizes the

dictionary in preparation for the national contest.

"I didn't realize that spelling bees were just for kids," Echo tells the

audience. "I thought I would be able to go on to greater glory as an adult,"

she muses, stopping to pronounce, and spell, one peculiar word after another.

That's what she does in times of stress - demonstrate her remarkable

proficiency - as if it would alleviate her loneliness and pain. These are what

Echo feels because her beloved grandmother has suffered a massive stroke and

lies paralyzed and speechless, as the hapless teenager spells ever more

difficult words and pretends to communicate with her.

With this rather absurd format, playwright Blessing uses flashbacks to create

a portrait of three unconventional people. Eleemonsynary - which means

"pertaining to charity " (including perhaps generosity and forgiveness) - is

also a cautionary tale about the temptation some parents have to impose

"giftedness" on their children by force-feeding them facts and dangling

conditional love and approval as the reward for precocious mastery of subjects

most people do not learn until adolescence or adulthood.

That deep-seated resentment is what cripples Artie. Catherine Malek gives a

strong performance as a woman whose physical awkwardness reflects her

underlying emotional damage.

In contrast, Anne Lohan is breezily charming as the quirky Dorothea. Confident

and self assured, she throws herself into her "eccentric" pursuits, whether

psychic research or human flight.

Kristi Petersen is both gallant and bewildered as the hapless teenager who

must cope with the gaps in the older women's personalities and use the family

brains to teach herself the truths she really needs in order to survive.

As always, Wendell MacNeal's direction is solid and smart. This is a play that

makes you think, even if you can't spell.

(The Country Players production of Eleemonsynary continues until May 10.

Curtain is Friday and Saturday at 8:30 pm. All tickets are $10. Call 775-0023

for details.)