DURHAM -- Like its feisty title character, the play based on "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" has survived much turmoil to reach a comfortable place. The dramatization of Allan Gurganus' best-selling novel seemed doomed following its one-night Broadway debacle, but a ruthless rewrite and a number of workshops gave it new life, as evidenced by its gripping staging now at Manbites Dog Theater Company.
Turning the book's 718 pages into the 75-minute one-woman, one-act "Oldest Living Confederate Widow: Her Confession" is a miracle in itself, admirably accomplished by Gurganus and co-author Jane Holding, who also plays the role. In the novel, 99-year-old Lucille Marsden tells about her arduous life married to a Civil War veteran, the book's length allowing for multiple ramblings about battles, slavery and the changing South. But major streamlining was necessary for the stage.
Gurganus and Holding found a single swatch on which to embroider just enough of Lucy's tribulations while keeping the flavor of the original. Here, Lucy focuses on her relationship to Capt. William Marsden, spilling out his secrets and a few of her own. She recounts her trepidation as a 15-year-old bride to a 51-year-old man, hilarious in her quick learning curve on the wedding night, moving in her devotion to the nine children she bore him.
The trouble is, the captain had a life-changing experience at 13, witnessing the death of his best pal after both joined the Confederate army. The captain never got over it, maintaining a fervent love for the dead friend that Lucy could never rival, despite all her efforts. She becomes the captain's devoted caretaker after a stroke incapacitates him for the next 30 years, but his ever-increasing disdain leads to a dramatic turn in which she wrests back her dignity and self-worth.
Playing Lucy
Holding has all the requirements to embody the part. She uses her diminutive frame to portray Lucy's slowed movements and employs an authentic rural North Carolina accent to color Lucy's trenchant observations. She pungently spins Gurganus' special style of baroque yet down-home dialogue into moments alternately hilarious and horrific. Holding confidently switches her voice into those of other characters and astutely shifts into each memory's mood.
Director Katja Hill nicely maintains the Southern gothic atmosphere, pacing the show for maximum effect. She deploys Holding over every inch of Derrick Ivey's dreamscape of Lucy's dilapidated home, greatly aided by Andy Parks' spectral lighting. A number of special effects - blinking light bulbs, sudden shots, a soldier's shadow - are well done but hardly necessary with Holding's ability to conjure everything required for this highly satisfying performance.
