The Rimers of Eldritch
The Rimers of Eldritch
By Lanford Wilson
Directed by John DiDonna
Starring Zachary Lane, Nichole Auger
Seminole State College, Lake Mary, Florida</strong>
While “Our Town” points out the joys of small town living “The Rimers of Eldritch” reveals the hopelessness and misery. Eldritch fades away as 20 miles away Centerville booms. With the mines closed, only a diner and a grain mill provide a tax base with Eldritch’s deep seated intolerance. Marriage before those pointless last two years of high school seems attractive, and it if wasn’t for wives to beat and cripples to pick on, there would be no entertainment at all. Well, that and sex, chief cook and bottle washer at the diner Cora (Skyller Armenta) takes a young lover Walter (Bo Smith) to replace her missing husband giving the old biddies Martha and Wilma (Michelle Albert and Jacquelyn Bell) the chance to start every line with “It’s not for me to judge…” Nutty Marry Windrod (Gloria Duggan) carefully buries small pets in the garden as her daughter Nellie (Amy Blacker) runs the mill and dodges gossip that she did in her 96 year old daddy. The Johnson boys beat their wives and girl friends while Patsy (Chloe McElroy) plots an escape and crippled Eva Jackson (Auger) thinks about sex with RobertConklin (Lane). At some distant mile post, we discover homeless outcast Skelly (Paul Luby) is the real center of the plot, but by now we are all making post-show dinner plans.
Wilson tells his story in an infuriatingly obtuse manner that will drive casual theater goers away in droves. Past and present coexist as red herring swim by and we surmise all the sympathetic characters moved to Centerville during rehearsal. Opinions vary – Patsy want to lock up the cripples, Evelyn Jackson rates court testimony based on the sexual experience of the witness, and anyone in any sort of happy relation is branded “whore” and not invited to the all night gossip sessions. The hopelessness of Eldritch reflects in the dour beams that form Richard Harmon’s set, and brutality motivates every action, mercy none. If there’s any danger in this play, it’s that any unstable audience members might hurt themselves once they get home.
For more information on the Seminole State College Theater program, please visit http://www.seminolestate.edu/arts/theatre/boxoffice.htm</em>
