Originally published in Northumberland News

There is nothing more excruciating than trying to convince someone to love you, and even worse, to run away from everything and everyone you have ever known.

Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning one-act play ‘Talley’s Folly’ is a tender and beautifully wrought story that unfolds over the course of a single evening in 1944 in Lebanon, Missouri. Produced and directed by Valerie Russell, this play delivers an emotionally rich and deeply human love story.

With just two characters and a single setting — a dilapidated Victorian boathouse — the story centres on Matt Friedman (Jeremy Brans), a middle-aged Jewish accountant and Sally Talley (Claire Russell), a nurse and member of a conservative family. The two reconnect after a brief summer romance the year before, as Matt tries desperately to convince Sally to take a chance on a future together.

As Russell says in her director’s note, “This isn’t a typical love story — there are problems here. Deep-seated, personal problems stemming from unhappy histories.”

The chemistry between these two actors is key; Russell and Brans were able to turn this play into an emotional and compelling dance. Each character desperately needs to let their walls down — one hides behind humour, the other behind a painful past.

The intimate setting of the Firehall Theatre plays a crucial role in the intensity of this play, as an audience member you are right in the thick of this deeply vulnerable evening. ‘Talley’s Folly’ is deeply human and explores love and identity.

Kristin Andrews, Northumberland News