BWW Reviews: Madhorse Theatre Presents Incisive and Insightful World Premiere of ALLIGATOR ROAD

South Portland's Madhorse Theatre has mounted the world premiere of Callie Kimball's Alligator Road, an incisive and insightful drama about family relationships, race, and the meaning of personal freedom. The play was first read at Madhorse's By Local Series last year, and the company has helped this talented young Maine playwright to bring this topical and timeless play to the stage.

Kimball, whose other works include Jenny1538 and Rush, has written a taut, tension filled script and scathing, acerbic, often mordantly funny dialogue for four wonderfully flawed and human characters, with whom the audience easily empathizes. The drama focuses on the decision made by the newly widowed Kathy to give away the hardware store she has inherited from her husband to a black woman, Lavinia, whom she has met at the local shelter so that she can be free to get on with her life and leave behind the past. Her daughter Candace, a tough talking college English major, bitterly opposes the decision. The confrontation between mother and daughter eventually envelops Lavinia and her white husband Scott, as issues of race are painfully aired and deep-seated family secrets revealed.

Kimball vividly paints her characters in colorful strokes and emotionally laden confrontations; she knows how to build tension to a white-hot temperature and diffuse it in a brief moment of sharp humor. The tightly woven plot has just enough twists and turns to make it compelling, but these flow naturally from the context and dialogue and never seemed theatrically contrived. Moreover, she tackles the difficult issues of race from the personal perspective of each of the four characters, thereby giving the dramatic situation a human dimension.

Reba Short directs with a brilliant sense of impetus and timing, eliciting from the excellent cast performances of stark, yet winning honesty. Christine Louise Marshall makes a wonderfully complex Kathy - warm and caustic by turns, at first bewildered then serenely determined. Marie Stewart Harmon is explosively compelling as Candace, alternately vituperative and fragile. Sarabeth Connelley provides a potent contrast as the gentle, self-controlled Lavinia, whose diplomatic outer veneer serves a wise coping device, and Mark Rubin strikes the right blend of cheeky and sympathetic as Scott.

Chris Sullivan's evocative set artfully recreates the dingy, small-town ambiance of the Alligator Road Hardware store and uses the black box space efficiently. Megan E. Tripaldi's props and set decoration add measurably to the overall atmosphere, especially in the myriad of colorful, whimsical knitted creations which are a vital part of the plot. Corey Anderson's lighting captures the claustrophobic darkness of the store, and Scott Leland's sound design with its 60s folk songs provides an aural complement to the visual designs.

Thanks to its adventuresome spirit and the keen theatrical instincts of the ensemble and its artistic director, Christine Louise Marshall, Madhorse Theatre has scored another hit. The company is to be complimented for developing new works of the outstanding quality of Callie Kimball's work. Hers is a play that deserves a wider audience, and one can only hope that Alligator Road will find many more venues and audiences with which to share its message.

Photos Courtesy Madhorse Theatre

Alligator Road runs March 12-29, 2015 at Madhorse Theatre Company, 24 Mosher St., South Portland, ME www.madhorse.com 207-747-4148

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