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<font style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" size="6">"Last Train to Nibroc” is a small play with a big heart.</font><br></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal">Cleveland Jewish News<br></p><p class="MsoNormal">Published: <span class="timestamp">Friday, February 19, 2010
1:10 AM EST</span></p>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reviewed by FRAN HELLER<br style="">
<br style="">
</span>
<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">Two people meet on a train. She wants to be a missionary; he, a writer. They
fall for each other, but it will take three more years (or two more scenes)
before they tie the knot.<br>
<br>
Sound syrupy?<br>
<br>
That’s what I expected until I saw Actors’ Summit’s engaging production of “Nibroc.” </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The intimate two-person show runs through Feb. 28.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">Yes, it’s an old-fashioned love
story as well as predictable. But Keith E. Stevens and Shani Ferry make their
characters so believable and likeable that they nestle under your skin where
they remain throughout the 90-minute play, presented without intermission.
Constance Thackaberry continues to prove her mettle as a director by keeping
the romantic comedy skipping and restraining her actors from veering toward
sentiment.<br>
<br>
The play takes place in three scenes from 1940-1943. It’s wartime.<br>
<br>
In the first scene, May and Raleigh meet on a
crowded train headed east from Los
Angeles. May is returning from a disappointing visit
with her fiancé before he is sent overseas to England. Raleigh, wearing a soldier’s uniform, has
just been discharged from the Air Force training program for medical reasons.
When May and Raleigh discover that they are from
neighboring towns in Kentucky,
it sparks a relationship that will sputter in the second scene and rekindle in
the third. <br>
<br>
Riding on the train with them are two coffins containing the bodies of two of America’s
greatest writers, Nathaniel West and F. Scott Fitzgerald, being shipped east
for burial. The parochial and deeply religious May has never even heard of
either writer. While Raleigh
tries to engage May in conversation, she continues to read Magnificent
Obsession, a religious novel that was a bestseller of its time.<br>
<br>
In the second scene, which takes place 1-1/2 years later, May has traded her
missionary ambitions for teaching school. Raleigh,
we learn, suffers from epilepsy, a misunderstood illness at the time (he is
sent to a mental hospital for treatment), and has difficulty holding down a
job. The courtship sours when the judgmental May, coming from a family of
landowners, looks down upon Raleigh’s
sharecropping and socially inferior kinfolk.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another
year goes by, bringing us to the last scene where May, who has now become the
school principal, and Raleigh, who has just sold his first story, meet once
again.<br>
<br>
In a play that’s more character study than drama, Stevens and Ferry are
perfectly matched as the gregarious and good-natured Raleigh and the prickly and straight-laced
May. Watching them navigate the terrain of Raleigh and May’s rocky, on-again-off-again
relationship is a treat, start to finish. What could easily grow stale and
boring remains refreshing and charming in the hands of these two actors who
never miss a beat, from just right Kentucky
drawls and naturalistic dialogue to how they interact with their eyes and body
language.<br>
<br>
The play is loosely based on playwright Arlene Hutton’s parents, to whom the
comedy/drama is dedicated. “Last Train to Nibroc” was chosen as one of the best
plays of 1999 by female playwrights.<br>
<br>
The title derives from the Nibroc Festival, taking place in May’s hometown of
Corbin (spelled backwards). May has never even attended the annual county fair,
which she condemns as “heathen.”<br>
<br>
The language of the play is simple, at times moving and poetical. For example,
in a touching soliloquy, Raleigh
vents the frustration and shame of being unable to serve his country when all
about him, others are, including May’s younger brother.<br>
<br>
It’s amazing how in this production a single prop expresses so much. The stage
contains only a solitary bench, which alternately serves as a train (with the
appropriate chugging); a park bench (coupled with A. Neil Thackaberry’s dappled
lighting); and May’s front porch. MaryJo Alexander’s period costumes (May’s
prim dresses; Raleigh’s
uniform and overalls) perfectly illuminate the 1940s timeframe. <br>
<br>
Audiences of a certain age, a.k.a. seniors, will find this play – a throwback
to yesteryear – especially enjoyable, as the performance I attended amply
proved.<br>
<br>
WHAT: “Last Train to Nibroc”<br>
<br>
WHERE: Actors’ Summit,
86 Owen Brown St., Hudson<br>
<br>
WHEN: Through Feb. 28<br>
<br>
TICKETS & INFO: 330-342-0800 or <a href="http://www.actorssummit.org/">www.actorssummit.org</a></p>