Will Kidder, a wealthy, self-made Houston man with a staggering sense of pride, is terrified by the idea of loss and change. His only son has drowned mysteriously. He has been fired from his job. He and his wife have just moved into an elegant new home that they can ill afford, and they are being preyed upon by a mysterious stranger with ties to their lost son.
This is the essential shape of Horton Foote’s “The Young Man From Atlanta,” a play that is set in the ’50s and describes a social order where appearances are meant to be protected at all costs. And yet, as Will and his wife contemplate empty bank accounts and an opulent home beyond their means, the mid-’90s drama feels very much in touch with the present.
And just as a flashy new musical is rocking the Alliance Theatre and a technologically sophisticated “Peter Pan” is being mounted in a tent downtown, the arrival of Theatrical Outfit’s beautifully nuanced production of the classically inflected drama is a welcome reminder of the scintillating power of superb acting.
Directed by Jessica Phelps West and starring the stentorian Tom Key as Will and Marianne Hammock as Will’s wife, Lily Dale, “The Young Man from Atlanta” is delicately calibrated and skillfully evoked. Key not only gives a pinnacle performance, he also meets his equal in Hammock, who plays the grand dame as a regal, fading flower with a lively spark, a heart of a gold and a paralyzing sense of loneliness.
Unspooling on designer Dale Brubaker’s handsome, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired set, introduced by the sound of trickling water and composer Kendall Simpson’s haunting score, “The Young Man” is an investigation of grief, anger, hubris, buried secrets -- and denial.
As the murky details of the son's back story emerge, we come to see that he may have been the victim of a manipulative game involving the titular character, who lurks in the margins but never appears onstage. Will, who wears a cowboy hat and plays with a baseball he keeps on his desk, is willing to acknowledge that his son committed suicide. But that his only heir also may have dabbled in a gay relationship he cannot acknowledge. What may be plainly evident to the viewer is unspeakable in the context of ’50s society.
Foote’s Pulitzer Prize winner refrains from the full-out hysteria of Tennessee Williams (see “Suddenly, Last Summer"), finding its power in the persistent thrum of the unspoken. The complexities of Will Kidder -- the oceanic sense of defeat -- have precedents in the Old Testament’s Job and Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman.
Key and Hammock are supported by a mostly good ensemble: Andrew Benator as Will’s young colleague and eventual replacement; Tonia Jackson as the family maid; Donna Biscoe as an elderly former employee who shares memories of the son, Bill, as a precocious little boy. On the downside, Frank Roberts plays Lily’s stepfather, Pete, with creaky woodenness. Tim Batten, as Pete’s great-nephew, Carson, overdoes the goofiness, as if to cover up the fact that he may be a tad too old for the part. (Oddly, West’s staging goes out of its way to suggest that the uncle-nephew horseplay has a platonic impulse.)
These slight bumps can be overlooked in the end. After staging Foote’s forgotten play “The Chase” in 2007, Key again displays an abiding affection for the Texas playwright’s legacy. His and Hammock’s marvelously affecting performances elevate “The Young Man From Atlanta” to a haunting work of art.
Theater review
“The Young Man From Atlanta”
Grade: B+
7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Also 2:30 p.m. Feb. 5, Feb. 9 and Feb. 19. Through Feb. 20. $15-$35. Theatrical Outfit, Balzer Theatre at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St. Atlanta. 678-528-1500, theatricaloutfit.org.
Bottom line: Foote's play gets a fine run in its namesake town.
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