Talley's Folly
Lanford Wilson’s production, “Talley’s Folly,” is based in Lebanon, Missouri in the 1940’s. It portrays the budding romance of Sally Talley, played by Averie Bell, and Matt, played by Michael Brahce. In a world about appearance and class, Sally cannot publicly announce her feelings for Matt, who is an immigrant and Jew. Sally pushes her feelings away and tries to shun Matt; however Matt’s convincing words eventually bring the two together…even if Sally’s family doesn’t agree. There is one dramatic part about the play when Sally unveils that she is unable to bear children, but Matt’s undaunted and decides that love will prevail. More specifically, Matt, along with his “accent,” seems to always be asking why throughout the play…Why won’t you be with me? Why won’t this work? Etc. Sally, however, is worried about what people will think. She is afraid to let her true feelings show. Acting-wise, Michael (Matt) and Averie (Sally) use what I think are outside-in approaches. Michael wears a fake beard and uses an accent to set his character, while Averie uses a slight southern draw. Averie could also be using the inside-out approach because of the emotion she uses in the play.
posted by Michael Todd @ 10:26 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Did you think the actors were effective in their approaches to their characters? Was the outside-in approach appropriate for Matt? Did it work for Sally? After watching the production, I questioned the methods used by the actors, especially because of Sally's ineffective performance. Do you think Sally tried to do too much by adopting both approaches? Also, I wondered why you put the word accent in quotes-- did you find his accent believable? I had trouble discerning it's origin because it seemed over the top.
It seems to me that you are hinting that the only reason why Sally did not publicly announce her feelings for Matt because he “[was] an immigrant and Jew” and I don’t think that that was the major issue. He was not accepted by her relatives but if that was a major issue for her she I feel would have been more reluctant to go down to the family boat house than what she was. I believe that the major issue of why she did not tell him is because she already put herself out there with the last man who rejected her when he found out that she was barren. That man made her feel as if she was deformed in a major way and no man would ever want her, making her more protective of herself . She would rather turn Matt away than dealing with rejection by another man because she is infertile is what I feel like her main concern was.
I agree with Crystal. Sally, I believe, would have gotten over the fact that Matt was Jewish if it were not for her previous experiences. Being rejected because of the fact that she was barren had a huge effect on her life and is obviously still tainting her relationships even now. She is so afraid that she will get rejected again that she is afraid to put herself out there. This is why she got angry and accused him of lying when he told his story about why he does not want to have children. It was easier for her to believe that he was lying so she would not have to risk getting hurt.
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