Talley's Folly

Landford Wilson’s Talley’s Folly was directed by Austin College’s Rachel Aker and previewed Wednesday night. The main characters of the play were Sally Talley and Matt Friedman. The play told of two lovers who were too stubborn to allow one another into each other’s life. Most notably ingenious about the play was the continuing metaphor of the “Humpty Dumpty”. This metaphor is the caring theme throughout the play in that both Sally and Matt refuse to let one another crack to the other. However, inevitably they break one another’s shell and reveal their true past and nature. However, throughout the play the relationship between the two characters was very awkward in that every time they embraced or showed affection it seemed more “acted” than “natural”. Matt’s character accent was diverse in actuality, but the accent seemed to slip multiple times for the actor. Matt’s accent was fluid, however in moments like when he is on the skates and falls in the hole it causes him to lose his accent, or even when he argues with Sally. There was not much character development in the play and that made the play seem to drag. Sally’s habitual anger and attacks at Matt came off a little annoying and frustrating for the audience. She seemed to never cut the guy some slack and it made us lose interest in her role and refocused our attention on Matt. The most distracting and out of place part of the whole play was the awkward interruptions of the music. The music did not mesh with the play very well and at times was too loud where the character’s dialogues were not heard. The lighting also was off sometimes because it did not fit with the atmosphere of a scene, for example, when the candle was put on the lighting did not seem natural or believable. Overall the play was good, but could have had multiple touch ups, but that can be understood because of the fact that I viewed it on a preview night.