As an enormous fan of the work by Horton Foote, I was genuinely thrilled that Signature Theatre was going to revive The Young Man From Atlanta. I missed that production when it had its world premiere in 1995. Mr. Foote was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this play. I find that praise hard to fathom after sitting through this stilted melodrama.
Will Kidder, Lily Dale Kidder and Pete Davenport are the major characters in this play. They were included in the magnificent nine play opus called the The Orphan’s Home Cycle. I saw a superb revival of the entire cycle at Signature Theatre in 2009.
The original story was about generations of a family inspired by Mr. Foote’s own father. He decided to revisit these characters when he wrote The Young Man From Atlanta. The settings are typical of his style combining quirky Texas families and their relationships with each other and the outside world.
Will Kidder (Aidan Quinn) is much older here and has suffered the loss of his only child who drowned at 37 years old. He’s convinced the death was suicide. He discusses this with a co-worker as he cannot talk to his wife. Clunky set-ups like this one at the start of this play mar the usual believable and naturalistic atmosphere so prevalent in other pieces.
Wife Lily is sure the drowning was an accident. Her grief has stopped her from playing the piano. She reminded me of my grandmother who never drove a car after her teenage son died. That pain is recognizable. Kristen Nielsen, an admirable and often excellent comic actress, is necessarily restrained in her performance. She is not necessarily the right choice for this part, however.
The title character is a man who lived with their son in Atlanta. He showed up at the funeral and was obviously grieving. Lily is still communicating with him and has sent him money. When the patriarch loses his job, the solid ground of the white American male collapses. Mr. Foote’s men see work ethic as their primary driver in life. An absolute right to success that they are owed given their efforts. With the debt of a brand new home, money is suddenly tight for the first time ever. Financial stress mounts and it is not hard to predict what will happen.
The Kidder’s have a black maid named Clara (Harriet D. Foy). Lily is obsessed with “The Disappointment Club.” This is one in which black women supposedly fail to show up for work at white women’s homes to get back at them. Lily’s heard that Eleanor Roosevelt was behind this and quizzes both black characters about their knowledge of such club. Texas in the 1950’s feels segregated as in the book and film, The Help.
Throughout the performance I caught, lines were flubbed repeatedly. Some people come across as underdeveloped caricatures. Others such as Lily’s stepfather (Stephen Payne) just blandly appear and seem to add little to the proceedings. Michael Wilson directed this production as he did with the accomplished Orphan’s Home Cycle. I cannot pinpoint why the tone seems so off-kilter and the pacing so labored. A late scene between Will and Lily, thankfully, was richly emotional and perhaps hinted at the original’s success.
Pat Bowie portrays Etta Doris in the show’s best scene. She is a retired elderly maid who worked for Lily many years ago. Clara invited her to say hello. There is a touching moment when the passage of time and the wisdom of age is considered. Whose life is happier or more settled in retrospect?
Dan Bittner and John Orsini were equally memorable as the co-worker Tom Jackson and a familial relative named Carson. We never meet the young man from Atlanta. It is not too hard to guess why this grieving man is clinging to Lily’s sympathy. Their creative son was always a bit different and hard to understand. Set in 1950, one can understand the burying of secrets. By 1995, however, this contrived soap opera is hardly unique storytelling or thematically revolutionary.
I highly recommend trying Horton Foote’s plays. They are usually superb dissections of a time, a place and a people he knows intimately. The Young Man From Atlanta is not one of them. The cycle mentioned above as well as The Trip to Bountiful, Dividing the Estate and The Roads to Home are all ones I’ve seen and worth your time. I will seek others out as they are revived. He’s usually that good.