Mountain Rose – The Ballad of Rose Anna McCoy
Mountain Rose – The Ballad of Rose Anna McCoy
By Stephen DeWoody
Directed by Julia Allardice Gagne
Starring Samantha Ann Schwartz and Nick Lougheed
Valencia Character Company
Orlando, Fl</strong>
There’s a heaping helping of country exposition up on this stage of beautifully carved log cabin walls, a full sized tree and a few vintage double wedding ring quilts. The backdrop is historically accurate and the focus is on the ill fated love story between sultry eyed Johnse Hatfield (Lougheed) and Rose Anna McCoy (Schwartz). You may have heard the names – the Hatfield / McCoy feud is the most famous private war in American history and a constant story touch stone from movies to cartoons. Johnse and Rose Anna fell in lust despite the feud and he boldly offered to marry her. He likely did so knowing neither parent would approve, he’s a womanizer and a decent sized jerk and one slap short of the classic abusive boyfriend. Rose Ann’s motives are more obscure, maybe she’s looking for adventure or romance or a change of scenery. No matter, neither Devil Anse Hatfield (Jesse Millican) nor his beard will allow the marriage, and Old Ran’l McCoy (Sean Michael Drake) is equally uncooperative. While marriage is a no go, Devil Anse allows them to shack up in the loft and soon Johnse moves on to Anna’s cousin Nancy McCoy (Kailee Akins) when the inevitable pregnancy occurs. Rejected by both families, Rose Anna descends to fallen woman status and moves in with her Aunt Betty (Amy K. Cuccaro). When we’re not involved in this soap opera there are various shootings, kidnappings and house burnings by the men folk and lots of homely advice by the women folk.
I hate to say anything is “too accurate” but author DeWoody does give us more back story than we need to understand the complicated relation between Johnse and Rose Anna’s families. All of the first scene and most of the second is exposition, and there’s still fill in by the Balladeer (Stephen Nettles). The attraction between independent and independent minded Rose Anna and predatory Johnse is intriguing and unexplained: both children act against the express wishes of their parents and upbringing, but why? Johnse makes sense as a horny kid with no moral compass, and Rose Anna might just be a thrill seeker, but those topics are left unexplored in favor of worrying us with warrants and bushwhacking and scary looking gunplay. Both Johnse and Rose Anna were well acted, and I enjoyed the monolog Old Ran’l (Sean Michael Drake) gave us in the last act. Aunt Betty’s bubbly cheerfulness and mother Hatfield (Paige Roberts) dour acceptance played well , but there were plenty of minor characters who entered, said their few lines, and left. This show sprawls when it should focus, and while I have some sympathy for Rose Anna everyone else feels arbitrary and there because the author wanted them, not because the story needed them.
For more information on Valencia Character Company, please visit http://valenciacollege.edu/artsandentertainment/Theater/
