Review Of The Play Steel Magnolias By Robert Harling
I had the pleasure of seeing one of Robert Harling’s wonderful plays, Steel Magnolias, directed by John Burke, and assisted by Anthony DeFilippo. The play was performed in Lauren K. Woods Theatre in West Long Branch. I liked the theatre in which the stage is extended so that the audience surrounds it on three sides, which is called Thrust. The play was trying to show the connection betwean the mother and her daughter. Samantha Truglio and London Jones performed as they were a mother and her daughter. On the other hand, Erin Clemente and Katie Roeder were not performing as if they were blood connected but they felt as if they were a mother and her daughter in the play.
In the stage, there was a wonderful ensemble of actresses. At the beginning of the show, the owner of the hair salon, Truvy Jones (Erin Clemente) was teaching and preparing her new employee Annelle Dupuy-Desoto (Katie Roeder) for her first day at work. She getting shocked because it is the first time and she heard gunshots. Coming costumers for their wedding. Clairee Belcher (Kara D’Antoni) is one of the costumers and also a friend of the owner. Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie (London Jones) is preparing for her best day, which is marriage. M’Lynn Eatenton (Samantha Truglio) is Shelby’s mother and she is also preparing for Shelby’s marriage, both of them are also friends of Truvy and Clairee. Ouiser Boudreaux (Rachel Wilson) was having troubles with her dog and she was also a friend of all the characters. There was also the DJ (Nicholas Messina) who did the part of talking on the radio.
The play had great features that were well prepared. The beautiful set was designed by Thomas Lynskey. The set did not change a lot during the show, which I prefer because, the audience can feel more like in real life. The set mostly included the hair salon and every piece in the hair salon. The technical director Fred DelGuercio and the asst. technical director Michael Carrol did a great job. The audience was able to hear the radio comfortably. Pat Nurnberger, the costume designer was able to make each character unique with their costumes. The costumes are not supposed to look because the play was in the 1980s. I can only describe the lighting design of David Landau as magical, with the beams of impeccably placed spotlights playing their own distinct parts in the play. The stage was often shadowy when Nicholas starts to talk on the radio at the beginning of a scene.
The actresses seemed as if they the character in which they were playing, thus creating an exciting mesh. I was particularly impressed by the way the characters seemed to emotionally feel and exist in their own unique roles. The humor of the play was embraced even greater through the gestures and subtle actions of the characters. The emotion of the characters were very clearly portrayed. For example, the scene when M’Lynn were crying for the death of her daughter Shelby I felt that the actresses were performing as if it was real life. I was particularly impressed with the performance of Rachel Wilson. Rachel fit the part of Ouiser almost perfectly as possible both in her appearance and personality. To be exhaustingly funny and talk in the weird voice of her character was no easy task. She mastered the role and was simply brilliant.
The mother and daughter relationship is the most complex. A son is a son until he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life. Of course mothers and daughters with strong personalities might see the world from very different points of view. A daughter without her mother is a woman broken. In the play all the actresses showed how strong they communicate Lack of communication is a common challenge with moms and daughters. “In some ways they can be so close or feel so close that they believe that each of them should know how the other one feels. In addition, the actresses show the love between characters and how strong they communicate.
The overall production was wonderful. Lauren K. Woods Theatre production of Steel Magnolias illustrates the beauty of friendship and the support that can help you wade through life’s hardest times. In this era of smartphones, the necessity of human connection is worth remembering and celebrating. The play delivers the beauty of shared pain and unflinching camaraderie. Something that is needed now more than ever before.
