‘Carpetbagger’s Children’ spins a folksy yarn on SCR stage

Tom Titus

When actors are called on to address only the audience, with

little or no interaction among themselves, the degree of difficulty

increases accordingly insofar as dramatic conflict is concerned.

Fortunately, South Coast Repertory has a trio of actresses who

conquer this challenge appreciably in Horton Foote’s new play, “The

Carpetbagger’s Children.”

The “children” of the title are not only grown, but in one case

quite elderly. Together, and separately, they spin compelling yarns

of their personal histories, which mesh into a folksy, familial

pattern on the theater’s Julianne Argyros Stage under the sensitive

directorial hand of Martin Benson.

The three sisters are daughters of a Yankee soldier who

“discovered” Texas during the Civil War and returned to make a life

for himself and his family there. Foote, now 86, has a rich heritage

to draw from, and the three women who populate his story enhance that

heritage and paint detailed pictures of their lives and the people

who are only discussed but not seen in the play.

The eldest is Grace Anne (portrayed by the venerable Nan Martin),

who rebelled and married against the family’s wishes. The middle

sister, Cornelia (Robin Pearson Rose) has taken on stewardship of the

family’s vast land holdings at the expense of a satisfying personal

life, while the youngest, Sissie (Linda Gehringer), is somewhat of a

scatterbrain with a singing talent that has become her blessing and

her curse.

The three chat, in turn, with the audience, which becomes an

intimate confidante for their separate perspectives on family

history, problems and occasional skeletons in a 90-minute gossip

session uninterrupted by intermission. It may be the shortest play

Foote has written, but it’s also one of the most fully formed and

satisfying.

Martin, although a bit uneven on opening weekend, is the most

colorful of the three, revelling in her long-ago forbidden romance

and steadfast in her refusal to initiate any form of truce with the

family’s surviving members. Her deft character strokes nicely flesh

out the unseen players in this scenario, and she is seated,

appropriately, apart from the others on stage as the sister “on the

outs” with the others.

Rose approaches the story from a more pragmatic perspective as the

sibling charged with managing the estate. She is the only “old maid”

of the surviving sisters, even though their parents were opposed to

any of them marrying and potentially dividing the farm acreage. Her

“left at the church” memories are as poignant as those of either of

the other, wedded siblings.

The younger sister, Gehringer’s role, is depicted as a physical

charmer not overly endowed with common sense, but who could sing like

an angel. Gehringer brings the audience into her exasperating

situation of constantly being requested to offer the same musical

number, and taking care that her frustration not seem obvious.

There are other, unpresented characters in the story, drawn

vividly by the sisters’ individual memories. Their mother, obviously

sinking into dementia, is a particularly colorful figure, as is their

brother, who crossed the color line in romance. A larcenous cousin

also is fully fleshed out by the sisters, particularly Rose’s

character, who fell victim to his charms.

The music written by Mitch Greenhill may be, as director Benson

states in the program, the “fourth character,” but Angela Balogh

Calin’s panoramic pastoral backdrop figures equally into the

equation, as do her simple, serviceable costumes.

“The Carpetbagger’s Children” may be less a play than a series of

memory-laden monologues, but Foote’s keen eye for the Texas character

renders this relatively brief exercise an enjoyable visit with a most

memorable family.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His

reviews appear Thursdays and Saturdays.