Steel Magnolias
Theater West End • Sanford, Florida
Created by Robert Harling
Directed by Laurel Hatfield
Staring Kristie Geng, Rachel Comeau, Zoe Lin Rosas, and Stefanie Diaz
reviewed by Carl F. Gauze
If it weren’t for small town gossip, there would be nothing left to talk about at Truy’s Beauty Spot in glorious Chinquapin Parish (that’s in rural Louisiana if you don’t get out much).
Befuddled Annelle (Rosas) wanders into this microscopic town after her boyfriend ditches her by pushing her out the door and into an actual ditch. Men aren’t subtle down in these parts, nor are their parents. Wealthy yet unsubtle Brick is about to marry Shelby (Comeau) even though she may not yield viable offspring. Beauty shop owner Truvy (Stefanie Diaz) takes Annelle in and gives her a job and a place to sleep, as acid comments flow from town gossip Clairee (Cynthia Beckert). Gunfire punctuates the scene courtesy of an unseen neighbor blasting away at a tree he doesn’t like. That’s rural America for you: it’s a land of misplaced opportunity and messed up people with even worse priorities.
The wedding is as tacky as one could hope, but we can only imagine it, as it’s offstage. Salt of the earth people here, but they aren’t in your subdivision. Tonight’s humor lays in the stereotype of American drama, a’ la Tennessee Williams. People live and worry about the social status and creating and obeying elaborate codes of etiquette. Woman are a closed society, men are only there to make money, shoot dinner, and toss in a few sperms. There are plenty of laughs here, but also a deeply dramatic peek into a closed society with its odd social values and arcane rituals.
Striking out a new path is looked down upon in Chinquapin Parish, but without that journey life is a tedious existence with no chance at growth. Each woman here is based on a gentle stereotype, and each transcends that stereotype, and they rise above themselves. Truvy acts as the calm center of the story. The other players bounce off of her while she adds sparkle to the performance.
-0bm You might come in expecting this show to offer only a festival of rural rubes, but that’s not what we see. Instead, we see women helping women in a tight-knit community that looks out for each other. There’s a tear from the audience hanging out in the curtain call, and it’s well deserved and tempered with a smile. Best of all, you don’t have to take that long drive to the rural south.
