White Plains Blue Mountain at Theatre of Gadsden

A new play by Donna and William Thornton, commissioned by The Theatre of Gadsden

Life in Alabama in 1959 was slower. Days seemed longer; families were uncomplicated; things were simpler. Everyone knew who they were and where they came from. They knew where they belonged. They knew and understood every aspect of their life, and they lived it day after day after droning day. Summer was worse. Summers in Alabama were hotter than the hinges on the very gates of hell. Each day melted laggardly into the next, with the oppressiveness of the heat and humidity making the still Southern air heavy and stifling.

There was, however, a singular woman who had grown tired of the heat, tired of the humidity, tired of the seemingly endless days of drudgery comprising her hardscrabble, mundane and negligible life. Eventually, she decided that she had had enough. She had enough of playing the cruel hand that life had dealt her, enough of giving and giving yet never receiving, enough of being ground under someone’s heel. She had had quite enough.

One hot, humid night, amidst the din of the cicadas’ ceaseless buzzing, she took a stand. She took a stand of such gravity that few before her had ever taken. She quelled the fear, the hatred, the disappointment, the shattered hope, the broken promises which had held her hostage. When she unleashed her broken spirit, she left in her wake a literal trail of horror. Once awakened and set free, her own demons led her to commit a crime so heinous that she herself could never put into words the acts that she committed that sweltering summer night. Or were these the acts of someone else; someone who was watching, who was equally broken and tired...Someone who had also had enough.

Set in the 1970s in Anniston, Alabama, the story of that night is being told by the investigator who diligently worked the crime back in 1959. His listener is intent on hearing all the gory details, every last one; nothing is to be left out. The listener becomes mesmerized by the story, identifying with the broken woman driven to such unspeakable acts—adding comments, theories, suggestions…and understanding.

As the skilled investigator weaves a tale of one horror story, he masterfully unravels another.