Afraid/Denying Terminal Illness in 'Milk Train'

Darren Pettie and Olympia Dukakis. Photos by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

TENNESSEE Williams, esteemed for “A Streetcar Named Desire” and many other works, wrote the very disturbing “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” in 1963 just after his lover had died.

Flora “Sissy” Goforth (Olympia Dukakis) is outlandishly louder-than-life. She is full of contradictions – at once cantankerous, exuberant, bullying, randy, despondent and vulgar. In “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, ”she is also dying and is deeply in denial about her illness, yet cunning and scared. OD commands the stage as Flora broadcasts her wishes and orders over the sound system she has installed.

Maggie Lacey and Darren Pettie

To help Flora ease her way is Frances “Blackie” Black (Maggie Lacey) who takes equal parts dictation and abuse. Even the compassionate Blackie can be cruel, suffering as she does under Flora’s bravado and heartlessness, the former tells the handsome poet, Christopher Flanders (Darren Pettie). Christopher has mysteriously shown up at Flora’s Italian mountaintop villa.

A difficult and troubled work, “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” gets star treatment at the Roundabout Theatre’s off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre through 3 April. Among its most egregious failings are disquieting character/plot twists. TW breaks with realism; the resulting changes in tone are jarring. (See video: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/video/1011/milk_2.htm?utm_source=todd_email&utm_medium=email_internal&utm_campaign=milk_train)

Christopher’s sudden appearance and his place in Flora’s world is an oddity, but “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” veers completely off course with the appearance of “The Witch of Capri” (Edward Hibbert).

All semblance of naturalism is suddenly disrupted and the actors, as if they were in a late 19th century melodrama, become stilted and wooden as if to signal a change in tone. They soon revert to the more naturalistic tone from the beginning of the play, except for EH whose delivery remains outlandish. He is deliciously vicious and swish as the gossipy Witch.

Edward Hibbert and Olympia Dukakis

Since Flora has allowed Christopher to stay in her pink cottage – probably because her fourth husband, Alex, was also a poet and handsome – she has invited The Witch to dine so that he can her the lowdown on her new houseguest. Christopher, it turns out, has been a companion to a number of rich women all of whom have died under his care. The Witch informs Flora that Christopher is known as the Angel of Death in their social set.

Director Michael Wilson makes an admirable attempt to bring the seldom-revived work to life. Unfortunately, it has many obstacles for both director and actors to overcome.

To learn more about “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/offbroadway/themilktraindoesntstophereanymore/about.htm.

Fear and Foreboding in 'Milk Train'

The mysterious Christopher (Darren Pettie) may or may not mean Flora (Olympia Dukakis) harm in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.” Photos by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

TENNESSEE Williams, esteemed for “A Streetcar Named Desire” and many other works, wrote the very disturbing “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” in 1963 just after his lover had died.

Flora “Sissy” Goforth (Olympia Dukakis) is outlandishly louder-than-life. She is full of contradictions – at once cantankerous, exuberant, bullying, randy, despondent and vulgar. In “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, ”she is also dying and is deeply in denial about her illness, yet cunning and scared. OD commands the stage as Flora broadcasts her wishes and orders over the sound system she has installed.

Frances (Maggie Lacey) and Christopher (Darren Pettie) have a moment in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.”

To help Flora ease her way is Frances “Blackie” Black (Maggie Lacey) who takes equal parts dictation and abuse. Even the compassionate Blackie can be cruel, suffering as she does under Flora’s bravado and heartlessness, the former tells the handsome poet, Christopher Flanders (Darren Pettie). Christopher has mysteriously shown up at Flora’s Italian mountaintop villa.

A difficult and troubled work, “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” gets star treatment at the Roundabout Theatre’s off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre through 3 April. Among its most egregious failings are disquieting character/plot twists. TW breaks with realism; the resultant changes in tone are jarring. (See video: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/video/1011/milk_2.htm?utm_source=todd_email&utm_medium=email_internal&utm_campaign=milk_train)

Christopher’s sudden appearance and his place in Flora’s world is an oddity, but “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” veers completely off course with the appearance of “The Witch of Capri” (Edward Hibbert).

All semblance of naturalism is suddenly disrupted and the actors, as if they were in a late 19th century melodrama, become stilted and wooden as if to signal a change in tone. They soon revert to the more naturalistic tone from the beginning of the play, except for EH whose delivery remains outlandish. He is deliciously vicious and swish as the gossipy Witch.

The Witch (Edward Hibbert) gives Flora (Olympia Dukakis) an earful about a certain handsome stranger in “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore.”

Since Flora has allowed Christopher to stay in her pink cottage – probably because her fourth husband, Alex, was also a poet and handsome – she has invited The Witch to dine so that he can her the lowdown on her new houseguest. Christopher, it turns out, has been a companion to a number of rich women all of whom have died under his care. The Witch informs Flora that Christopher is known as the Angel of Death in their social set.

Director Michael Wilson makes an admirable attempt to bring the seldom-revived work to life. Unfortunately, it has many obstacles for both director and actors to overcome.

To learn more about “The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore,” visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/offbroadway/themilktraindoesntstophereanymore/about.htm.

A 'Brief Encounter' That Goes a Long Way

Tristan Sturrock and Hannah Yelland, above, as restrained lovers Alec and Laura in "Brief Encounter." Photos by Joan Marcus.

BY TAMARA BECK

EMMA Rice’s “Brief Encounter” takes Noel Coward’s 1945 film adaptation of his one-act play about forbidden love, “Still Life,” from the screen to the silver stage!

At Roundabout Theatre's Studio 54 in an extended run through 2 Jan., "Brief Encounter" pays tribute to its cinematic origins in uniquely cinematic ways.

Director ER (she is also responsible for the adaptation) uses film clips, toy trains, and a multi-level stage that serves as train trestle and love nest, to nice effect.

Speaking of effects: at one point the heroine, Laura (Hannah Yelland), steps from the stage into the screen to join her husband, Fred (Joseph Alessi) in a film version of the scene. Later, Alec (Tristan Sturrock) dives through the image of a speeding train and appears at a window as it speeds by on screen.

Laura (Hannah Yelland) seeing her man off - it is her husband or her lover? - in a scene from "Brief Encounter."

Laura and Alec, both respectable, married people, meet by chance at a railroad station teashop. Laura has a splinter in her eye; Alec, explaining that he is a doctor, helps her remove it. Over time they continue to meet, first for a movie, then a row, then a brief affair. Thursdays are marked by the lovers’ meeting - or on one occasion - missing each other except for a brief moment of explanation before a train takes Alec home. As the teashop owner, Mrs. Myrtle Bagot, (Annette McLaughlin) remarks at one juncture, this is going to end badly. (See trailer: http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/video/1011/encounter_3.htm).

Love, or lust, is in the air elsewhere, too: Myrtle Bagot has a flirtation and a bit more with Albert, the stationmaster, (also played by Joseph Alessi). Her shop girl, Beryl (Dorothy Atkinson), and Stanley (Gabriel Ebert) are also carrying on. But it is Laura and Alec's story that is meant to be the poignant core of "Brief Encounter." Myrtle and Albert are livelier than Laura and Alec. Their animation is in part thanks to a class system that allows “lower classes” to have more fun in matters of love. Laura and Alec are firmly of the middle class, and their decency makes their passion almost decorous – and less than passionate – and them dull.

Annette McLaughlin and Joseph Alessi as exuberant lovers in "Brief Encounter."

That is not to say that the acting and actors aren’t excellent. ER’s Kneehigh Theatre Company is a talented bunch. The actors sing and play a variety of instruments, and in some cases, parts, with finesse. AMcL’s Myrtle delivers two particularly entertaining versions of a love song in which she first discloses that she is not good at love and then that she is.

In theory, “Brief Encounter” is an agreeable way to spend 90 minutes with nice people in and out of the teashop. The "Brief Encounter" for the audience, however, is an uneventful and somewhat bland melodrama.

Visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/54/ to learn more about “Brief Encounter."

Tamara Beck is President, Clean Lists Associates, Inc, an association management firm. And an avid theater-goer.