Review: WELLESLEY GIRL at Black Box Theatre

FSW College Theatre has chosen an eerily prescient play by Brendan Pelsue for its fall semester offering. Wellesley Girl premiered in 2016 at Actors Theatre of Louisville, yet it reflects much of what is happening in Florida today.

The story is set in the year 2465 in a post-apocalyptic town in Massachusetts. The population of the United States has shrunk so low that each citizen is also a member of Congress. When an invading army from the south marches toward the wall that surrounds the town, the townspeople are divided over how to handle the crisis. Should they send an emissary out to negotiate or should they assume the worst and start with militancy? They all do their best to shout one another down, not unlike today's Congress.

The title character played by Danica Murray is terrified. She watched her family and friends die years back from drinking water poisoned by algal blooms when they left that town. Murray is first flirtatious, then increasingly desperate as she tries to persuade her earnest, plaid-shirted husband, solidly played by Jorge Cabal, that the water problem still exists even though a government study says otherwise.

That study has been done by the robot-husband of the conflicted Chief Executive Officer, Courtney Sander. Kole Cox gives some much-needed comic relief as Hank, the robot.

The eventual decision goes all the way to the Supreme Court, now a single female elder played with dignity even when folding laundry by Lexie Anne Cole.

The play asks some important questions. Is it wise or cowardly to refrain from voting when neither alternative is good? Can government studies be trusted? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about our chances for survival? Will we ever learn?

If you'd like to contemplate these ideas, the play runs next weekend too in the Black Box Theatre on the Fort Myers campus. For tickets, go to www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3796013.

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