Belles: Does Anyone Still Use A Service?

The march of technology is a tricky thing, often rendering old movies quaint and old plays confusing when their subject matter becomes obsolete ( Company is a case in point). With a play, of course, you have the option of doing it as a period piece, or, as in the new presentation by Heiress Productions of Mark Dunn's 1989 Belles: a play in two acts and forty-five phone calls, a play about the six 6 Walker sisters (from Texas, but now spread all over the US) who only communicate by phone, adapting (with the author's permission, of course) lines in the script to bring it up to modern times. This is achieved with moderate success in this production, giving some of the characters cellphones and such, though of course that loses the pun in the title when there are very few actual bells onstage that aren't electronic, and I'm sure that some of the characters by this time would only be talking to each other by E-mail. Nevertheless, the play still works, most of the time.

I'm a fan of Dunn's work- I saw his amazing play Octet at NJ Rep some years ago, and his novel Ella Minnow Pea is nothing short of genius.  This play seems more an excercise than a fully grounded piece- It doesn't have a full plot as such, just conflicting personalities and ideals. Each of the 6 grown Walker sisters has her own space on the stage, from which they talk to each other by phone. There's Peggy (Rebecca Lovett) who stayed at home in Texas to take care of their accident-prone mother, Aneece (Ashton Heyl) who got as far away as possible and became a lawyer, Roseanne (Kristi McCarson) who is in ostensibly wedded bliss with a preacher, Audrey (Kelly Strandemo) whose hopes for a child have been sublimated into the ventriloquist's dummy she performs with, Dust (Christina Shipp) who takes an assumed name for her spacey-hippie lifestyle, and Paige (Laura Faith) who doesn't seem to be interested in anything except golfing and the boys at her college. Peggy calls all the sisters whenever Mama has another accident (at the beginning of the play she ate some bad tunafish and had to be hospitalized), keeping them in contact. As the play continues, we get to know the little quirks of all the sisters- most of their lives revolve around the men they want to date/are divorcing/are afraid don't love them anymore. None of them understand each other but love and tolerate each others' wackiness. And through the course of the play we get enough backstory to better understand all of them.

It's an interesting piece, and Marisa Viola's direction is up to the challenge, letting the women invade each others' spaces physically, even as they're keeping their distance emotionally. It might be a consequence of the script, but the cast members all seem to be acting in different plays. All of them are great, though: the standouts being Shipp, Heyl, and Lovett.

Heiress productions is a not-for-profit production company that raises awareness and funds for cancer organizations. Proceeds from Belles will benefit Joe's House, a nonprofit organization providing a nation-wide online service that helps cancer patients and their families find lodging near treatment centers.

Belles: a play in two acts and forty-five phone calls
By Mark Dunn
Heiress Productions

Belles will be performed from March 19 - April 12 at the Lion Theatre, Theatre Row (410 W. 42nd Street, NYC) with performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm; Sundays at 3pm; and Mondays at 7pm. Tickets are $21.25 and are available at www.ticketcentral.com or by phone at 212-279-4200.

For more information, visit www.heiressproductions.org.

Photo Credit: Christian DeAngelis

1. Ashton Heyl, Rebecca Lovett
2. Laura Faith, Christina Shipp