Small Town Truths: The Waiting Room

             We've all heard stories about small towns--so small, everyone knows everyone else's business, and everyone seems related to one another. Small towns--particularly the rural, below- the-Mason-Dixon-line variety--are dens of gossip, where the Civil War is still being fought, the locals are either extras from To Kill A Mockingbird or Smokey & The Bandit...or maybe The Waltons and Deliverance...while reality is anyone's guess, even for the people who live there.

            That's especially true in the case of Samm-Art Williams' play, "The Waiting Room," now at the Vagabond Players theater in Fells Point. Set in a waiting room at Memorial Hospital in Bend River, North Carolina, the play makes a simple point, made clear in the opening monologue by Riley Innes (George Buntin): "People feel compelled to tell the truth when in a hospital waiting room." With the spectre of Death never more apparent than in this setting, people feel the need to "get right with God," to reveal secrets before it is too late.

            There are several monologues in the play, as actors Buntin, Tennelia Engram as Rachael and Erik Vassiliev as Casey step away from the action of the main stage and into the spotlight to share their characters' insights, fears and hopes with the audience.

            I'm not a huge fan of this practice in a play; it typically slows the action and it is often better to "show it, not say it," that is, let these moments find expression through the actions and dialogue between characters. But as this play is didactic, seeking to instruct as well as entertain, it's an appropriate device and each actor plays these moments well.

            "The Waiting Room" is anything but preachy, however. In fact, I found the first act as enjoyable as any piece of theater I have seen this season. Veteran performer William Walker was a crowd favorite in his role as the supremely, superbly, politically-and-socially incorrect Uncle Pat, whose thoughts on the Africanized names many modern black women christen their children, had the audience roaring.

            You won't find any stereotypes in this play; in fact, just the opposite. Uncle Pat is a staunch Republican ("they tell the truth!"), and speaks in favor of naming children after former slaves as a way to honor one's ancestors, many of whom were named for Biblical characters--"holy names," he remarks, representative of the strength of body, mind and spirit necessary to endure such hardship.

            Another character, Gordon MacInnes (Joe Del Balzo), close friends with Uncle Pat, is a white Southerner who wears a Confederate flag t-shirt. "The Stars and Bars, it's a battle flag," he asserts, as for him, it represents not slavery but each man's right to stand up for what he believes in, to be independent. When Riley confronts Gordon about the shirt, his defense is clever. Pointing to his chest, he declares, it's "not this flag" that is sending its sons and daughters to fight in foreign wars or presided over the collapse of our economy, etc., etc., etc.

            Then there's Kendra Banks as Cookie who combats mosquitos by bathing her "entire body in motor oil," and Jay Nicole's Jessie Innes whose life philosophy is "Remember, you're a Southern lady. A Southern lady never bows or stoop low."

            Given Samm-Art Williams own colorful life--in addition to being an award-winning writer and an actor of stage, screen and television, he once served as sparring partner to boxing legend Muhammed Ali--it's not surprising that his characters are as engaging and multi-layered as they are.

            Elle Blackwell's young nurse Hannah Blake exudes just the right Southern charm as she finds herself an attractive, intelligent woman living in a backwater where eligible bachelors are great in quantity but low in quality. Vassiliev's Casey also chaffs under tight constraints of small town life being "the only farmer in Bend River with a degree in biology," while Buntin's Riley wonders if he should have studied law while he battles his fears for his father's well-being (it's his illness, a heart attack, that brings the players together in the first place).

            Buntin is convincing in his role, though his presence on the stage sometimes is a bit stiff; there are moment where you sense he's wondering what to do with his arms and hands, but his performance is otherwise strong, particularly with his expression of shock and pain at certain life discovery which is at the heart of the entire play.

            Unfortunately, that discovery is made at the close of the play's first act making the second act somewhat anti-climatic. Samm-Art Williams' play makes a strong statement about the nature of family and how each of us views and defines ourselves, how precarious that sense of self ultimatley is, and how that view can be so very different in the eye of another. It's a message that comes through clearly in the first act, but seems repetitive in the second act as this same message is brought home again and again, slight variations only on the same theme.  

            The Vagabond makes use of a modular set that quickly changes from the hospital waiting room to an adjacent yard (though at one point, part of the set did not quite lock into place, allowing the audience to view the waiting room and "yard" at the same time. Fortunately, the strength of the acting kept the audience focused on the stage action rather than on the stage!)

            Directed by Amini Johari-Courts, The Waiting Room continues its run at The Vagabond Players, 806 South Broadway in Fells Point, now through June 27^th with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15. Call 410-563-9135, email reserve@vagabondplayers.org or visit www.vagabondplayers.org.

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