Tall tales with twang
By Martin F. Kohn
Free Press Theatre Critic

out of four stars




    So Jesus and St. Peter drop in on this family in Appalachia with 14 children.  No, there's no rabbi and there's no golf course, either, but it's still OK to laugh.  Romulus Linney would want you to.

    Linney, a prolific playwright (and the most famous person in his family until daughter Laura started showing up in movies), spent a chunk of his childhood in rural North Carolina.  He frequently evokes Southern sounds and settings in his plays, as he has in "Sand Mountain," a pair of one-acts that take place near the top of an old Smoky.  You can almost hear the guitars twanging.  Actually, you hear the guitars quite well because there are two singer-guitarists who help things along.

    The plays in the "Sand Mountain" diptych have the flavor of Southern tall tales told on somebody's front porch, a flavor that director Arthur J. Beer brings out in his production at the Theatre Company.  His not-so-secret ingredient is Mary F. Bremer, who plays folklore's answer to Dear Abby in the first play, "Matchmaking," and the down-home narrator in the second play, "Why the Lord Come to Sand Mountain."  The reason the Lord came to Sand Mountain -- and it doesn't spoil anything to know -- is that the Lord loves a good story.
    So does Linney, who also loves the vocabulary and sentence structure that can transform a story into more then just an account of who did what when.  Even without the music, there is music in "Sand Mountain."

    In the first story, an intelligent young widow (Jessica Cloud) is courted by three unsuitable suitors: a brute, a braggart and a Bible-thumper.  (To acknowledge their lack of princely qualities it might be fun for the musicians to play "Froggy Went A-Courtin'.")  Then along comes herbalist and wise woman Lottie Stiles (Bremer) with a risqué question guaranteed to weed out unqualified swains.

    In the second tale, Bremer, clad in layers that bespeak not a fashion sense but thrift and longevity, introduces Jesus (Christopher Hogan) and St. Peter (Timothy McKernan), dressed to blend in, as they make their way to a certain country cabin.  There they find an old man (Beer), his young wife (Amanda L. Stein) and their 14 children (played by two actors).  They "can't read no Bible," the narrator says, "but they love to dispute the thang anyhow."  As they sit by the fire, which flares convincingly (but safely) from a hole in the floor, they swap jokes and stories and Jesus turns their meager supply of rotgut into a never-empty jug of the good stuff.
    Given the actor's natural sounding Southern accents and genuine affection for their characters, the good stuff flows freely in this "Sand Mountain."

Contact Martin F. Kohn at 313-222-6517 or at kohn@freepress.com

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