Review: LONE STAR - An Intriguing Study of Hapless Characters
By: Gil Kaan Apr. 15, 2017
LONE STAR/by James McClure/directed by David Fofi/Zephyr Theatre/thru May 7, 2017
The Elephant Theatre Company's LONE STAR provides an interesting character study populated with three intriguing characters, the most being the younger brother Ray as embodied by Christopher Parker. Set in Maynard, Texas in 1981, Ray finds his older brother Roy drunk in the back patio of Angel's Bar. Christopher Jordan fully commits to his character of Roy, the drunken, lost-to-himself Vietnam vet who spends his Saturday nights drinking bottle after bottle of Lone Star beer.
Playwright James McClure has depicted these brothers as realistic, human and flawed; with Ray the more full of surprising reactions. In the midst of the brother's camaraderie (or commiserating), their former schoolmate Cletus (an appropriately fumbling Brian Foyster) enters to attempt a sort of mini-class reunion. Roy has always hated and made fun of Cletus, while Cletus has, to this day, hero-worshipped Roy.
When Roy goes inside to the bar, Cletus takes the opportunity to reveal to Ray all his various, unsuccessful ploys to be just like Roy. Of course, the only thing that Roy has that Cletus doesn't (in Cletus' mind) is Roy's classic old Chevy. (A vital plot point that I won't spoil here.)
David Fofi ably directs this seventy-minute one-act progressing as in real time. LONE STAR ends with no revelatory advancement or development - just like Roy's life, standing still, in place.
Actor Jordan does fine double duty as set designer with his detailed rustic, autumn leaves-strewn back patio set.
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