The Reflector
Starkville Community Theatre wraps up its 2001-2002 season at the Playhouse on Main this weekend with a production of Pulitzer Prize and Oscar winner William Inge’s classic “Bus Stop.”
“Bus Stop,” directed by SCT stage regular Lyle Tate (previously limited to the spotlight-this is Tate’s first attempt at helming), is a perfect follow-up to February’s wildly successful Southern comedy, “The Foreigner.” Inge’s sense of humor seems to be a natural extension of “Foreigner” scribe Larry Shue’s, and although “Bus Stop” does not deliver the same nonstop hilarity of “mistaken” identity, it adds a third dimension to “Foreigner’s” family funnies-sentimentality.
The story is simple: four bus passengers and their driver (Charles Campell) find themselves holed up on a cold March night in Grace’s Diner, where they wait with lively proprietor Grace Hoylard (Madeline Golden), her na‹ve assistant Elma (Mississippi State University freshman Vaughan Shearer) and the local sheriff (Brian Hawkins) for the snowed-in roads to reopen. The motley bunch of passengers includes two cowboys, a chanteuse named Cherie (Krista Wolf) that the younger cowboy has fallen for and intends to marry and aging professor Dr. Lyman (Kris Lee), who is attempting to escape his past.
The cowboys, Bo and Virgil (Mississippi State University students Jeff Mathews and Gabe Smith) are on their way back to their ranch with Cherie (Cherry, as pronounced by Bo) in tow. She intends to escape Bo’s clutches as they wait out the storm, but as the night passes, the ups and downs of her relationship with Bo and her conversations with the other patrons begin to change her mind.
Like Cherie and Bo, the other acquaintances create their own differing relationships, and together they learn about themselves, their own lives and the varying nature of love.
“Sentimental” is definitely the watchword for Tate’s “Bus Stop.” From the deftly selected ’50s pre-show music to the somewhat sappy but touching finale, Tate weaves a one-room world that is steeped in realism and charm. “Bus Stop,” seemingly with ease, appeals not only to audiences that lived the period, but to a new generation unfamiliar with nylons or poodle skirts.
The talented ensemble cast, an attractive mixture of experience and ingenuousness, share Tate’s image completely. From Shearer and Lee’s somewhat pitiful and saddening interactions to Golden and Campell’s downright funny escapades, each character displays a burning need to be understood. They clearly desire the audience to empathize with their lives and dreams and to ultimately want the best for them and for things to turn out wonderful for them (not always the case, I’m afraid).
Mathews captures this mentality the most effectively of the cast; his Bo Decker endears himself immediately to the audience with his gruff exterior and almost saintly true ways. Mathews’ ability to be both wildly funny and frankly likable envelops the audience and draws it willingly into the rest of the action.
Also of note, Wolf’s somewhat jaded but hopeful Cherie proves to be the perfect opposite for Mathews, as she follows him motion for motion and laugh for laugh, convincing the audience immediately that her own quirks are more than a match for his.
After the show I was pleased to witness a very brief scene featuring an apparently crazed Mathews. He rushed by Smith at high speeds, slapped him jokingly (and quite painfully) on the rear end, and after a brief exchange of congratulations, ran whooping off to parts unknown. In my mind, that moment satisfied everything I felt about “Bus Stop.” The characters were real, exactly like they convinced me they were. The cast wanted me to like them, and I wanted to like them from the beginning. And I did.
“Bus Stop” runs tonight through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Playhouse on Main, 108 East Main St. in Starkville. Tickets are in extremely limited supply. For ticket information, call 323-6855.