Everyone has a place they call home. For Carrie Watts, home is Bountiful, Texas. And she’ll get there, no matter the cost. Horton Foote’s American classic has always been a quiet, sleepy play about an elderly woman who, in the sunset of her life, wants to go home. At its heart beats a story of hard-won liberation from stifling city life in Houston to the wide-open fields of Bountiful. But under Timothy Douglas’ conscious direction, he takes us on a much more complicated journey.
| Onstage |
| ‘The Trip to Bountiful’ |
| Where: Round House Theatre, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through April 10 |
| Info: $10 to $60; 240-644-1100; roundhousetheatre.org |
In a unique co-production with the Cleveland Play House, Round House Theatre stages the first version of Foote’s 1962 script to feature an all-black cast. It may look like the same cramped, two-room flat Mrs. Watts shares with her son and daughter-in-law, but we know that history tells a much different story.
It’s an already tense atmosphere in that tiny apartment, between Ludie and his self-centered wife, and with the constant feuding between Jessie Mae and her mother-in-law, it’s practically unbearable. Mrs. Watts has attempted to escape before, and usually around the beginning of the month, as soon as her pension check arrives in the mail.
This time we wonder if her freedom will come with a price.
It’s no small thing that Douglas has taken a chiefly conventional piece of theater and turned it into something richer and more complex. His conceit works well enough, and only at the expense of our imagination. His audiences have to work a little harder to suspend disbelief, ignoring the boundaries of reality to fully embrace the intent of Foote’s tale. Only then is the play’s landing as elegant as its leading lady.
Lizan Mitchell’s Carrie is a sprightly figure of a woman, caged against her will and yearning to break free. Whether she’s running from room to room and driving Jessie Mae crazy, making new friends on her overnight adventure, or breathing in the fresh air of her youth, Mitchell’s radiant performance is the equivalent of a small masterpiece for the stage.
Despite its inherently slow pace, the evening is held together by Mitchell, and she is joined by an equally adept ensemble, including Howard Overshown as her henpecked son and Chinai J. Hardy, who strikes just the right balance of cool distance and hot temper for her nervy Jessie Mae.
“We are a part of all of this,” marvels Carrie, who is finally able to recover “some of the dignity and peace” she knew in her younger years. Douglas’ production gives a profound sense of home, and with Mitchell’s brilliance, it is a meaningful trip to Bountiful and beyond.
