ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST

by Lillian Hellman
The Peccadillo Theatre Company
Directed by Dan Wackerman; cast: Oliver Buckingham, Ben Curtis, Perri Gaffney, Sherman Howard, Christopher Kelly, Christopher Lucas, Matthew Floyd Miller, Ryah Nixon, Elizabeth Norments, Kendall Rileigh, Stephanie Wright Thompson, Anthony Willis Jr
Theatre at St. Clement’s, New York NY, June 3 – July 3, 2010
www.ThePeccadillo.com

In 1946, more than a decade into her celebrated career as a playwright, Lillian Hellman wrote ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST, which stood as a prequel to her already acclaimed THE LITTLE FOXES and spawned the Marc Blitzstein opera REGINA. The tales of a family’s greed, dysfunction and manipulations of the world around them were born of the steamy southern air of Hellman’s New Orleans childhood but informed by her adulthood in New York and awareness of a much needed brand of social justice. Hellman, a progressive who was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee within several years of this play’s Broadway debut, offered theatre audiences a veiled look at the machinations of a crumbling southern aristocracy and the fallout it wrought to a nation divided.

ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST takes place in the Deep South of 1880, fifteen years after the end of the Civil War, where the story of ruthless war profiteering--all too familiar to today’s audiences--quickly unfolds. The family patriarch, Marcus Hubbard, a symbol of the most heartless side to the industrial revolution, is revealed to have played to the highest bidder during bloody battles which took the lives of many of his neighbors. But the intricate story ranges from the destitute in class struggle to the African-American stand against brutal racism, to Hubbard’s, vacuous, loveless marriage, his emasculation of his sons, and to the disturbing, incestuous relationship with his daughter, Regina. The script is sharp, cutting, daring its audience to laugh at the absurdity of a Southern hospitality culled from the bizarre. Hubbard is portrayed here in fine form by the powerful actor Sherman Howard. Once he took the stage it was easy to lose sight of the actor’s television work, for his was a dark, visceral portrayal. While Howard has a thorough stage career, this reviewer could not help but recognize him from his one-shot role on ‘Seinfeld’ when, during surgery his character somehow ends up with a Junior Mint sealed up into his wound. But this drama required no outside agents of irony to convey the feeling.

The excellent cast of thirteen also included another veteran of multi-media, Elizabeth Norment as Hubbard’s wife, Lavinia. Ms. Norment’s role is considerably subtler than that of Marcus, yet she was able to convey a deep-rooted strength as the seemingly mentally ill character comes to terms with her husband’s cruelty and her own need for purification. In this era of violence against Southern Blacks, Lavinia has developed a close friendship with her maid, Coralee (ably portrayed by Perri Gaffney) and takes a stand against the increasingly common practice of lynching. While her character’s desire to ‘save’ her African-American neighbors carries with it a characteristic patronization, Lavinia symbolizes an entire school of Southern philosophy which stood in direct opposition to that which Marcus’ character represents.

Regina, very much the protagonist of THE LITTLE FOXES here still stands as an important figure, indeed the hub of the story. In this play one recognizes the traits of the matured Regina and the explanation of why FOXES came to be is quite apparent as one sits in the house of ANOTHER PART. Actress Stephanie Wright Thompson brings the youthful Regina to life with flair and a multi-faceted if not compact style. The smallish woman with brown hair pinned up may not ignite a room the way Bettie Davis, who portrayed the character in the film version did, but she personifies Regina in a manner which is original and seductive. Her Regina appears to contain the wherewithal to control all that goes on around her, albeit just beneath the surface. Her interactions with brothers Benjamin (a slick almost perpetually smirking Matthew Floyd Miller) and Oscar (Ben Curtis, walking the line between farce and desperation quite deftly) well illustrate these aspects, yet it is her manipulation of her father’s broken inner self which is most appalling. Regina is a survivor, navigating through life’s misfortunes with total aplomb.

Likewise Lillian Hellman. The gifted writer broke ground with much of her work, stepping into the male-dominated world of the professional playwright and screenplay writer with both feet, oft-times kicking. Her first Broadway play, THE CHILDREN’S HOUR (1934) spoke to the issue of unrequited love, from the perspective of a lesbian, as much as it featured the spewing hatred by the gentry of a whitewashed town. Hellman’s work was notable on all levels as was her marriage of many years to outspoken Left writer Dashiell Hammet, a Communist Party member, who faced an irreproachable blacklist for many years. Like many forward-thinking artists of the Depression years, Hellman partook in a variety of radical actions and was also a member of the League of American Writers, a national mass coalition organized by the CPUSA to speak out against inequity and injustice. While Hellman was said to have never been a member of the Party, her activism within its circle and front organizations was enough to qualify her for a raking over the coals by J. Parnell Thomas’ “House Un-Americans”. Taking a stand as bold as any dramatic character faced with insurmountable challenge, Hellman, in 1952, spit back into the face of HUAC by telling the Committee:

“To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions…”

Lillian Hellman’s works are at once brilliant art, vivid entertainment and an important part of the struggle against the forces of reaction. In this sense just being a member of her audience, one emerges from the theatre feeling empowered. Take a stand today in New York City before ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST closes.