BWW REVIEWS: ACT 1's Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will

If you're in need of some intense family drama leavened with heaping helpings of laughter - just like the kind Mama and them can dish up along with the grits and the gravy - then look no further than ACT 1's cracklin' production of Del Shores' Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will? Broadly farcical in the manner of most Dixie-fried situation comedies, what sets this show apart is the heart that's apparent just beneath the surface, and director David McGinnis' crackerjack ensemble who breathe life into the whole Turnover clan.

Set in the small Texas town of Lowakee, the plot of Shores' play (which was made into a film starring Tess Harper, Beverly D'Angelo, Beau Bridges and Keith Carradine, among others) is pretty much explained in the title: Turnover patriarch Buford (played with the right amount of comedy and pathos by Dan Ziegler in ACT 1's version) has suffered a stroke, his mind and memory muddled by dementia, and he's likely to drop dead at any minute, setting off a somewhat zany search for his will by his quartet of loving, rather ne'er-do-well, children.

His family includes his oldest daughter Lurlene (played with earnest enthusiasm by Rusty Rae in white slingback pumps - thank God, it's before Labor Day - and a smart suit), a preacher's wife who has gotten above her raisin', if you ask me; his nasty and abusive son Orville (who personifies "white trash" in the performance of Michael Welch), the trash collector; his spinster daughter Sara Lee (the always committed Kay Ayers, who delivers yet another memorable performance that's almost heartbreakingly funny), the town's "beauty operator"; and his youngest child, the slutty and slatternly Evalita (played with just the right amount of over-the-top charm by Samantha Rogers, clad in Daisy Dukes and cowboy boots that perfectly capture the play's 1986 setting), who's running around the Lone Star State in a panel truck emblazoned with "The Evalita Turnover Band" on the side.

As we learn over the course of the play's action, the four siblings were once very close-knit, but the realities of life - which included their mother's untimely death, petty jealousies and recriminations and everything else that will drive people apart (from the price of beef roast down at The Pig; instrusive nosy neighbors; and the ups-and-down of ranch life) - has ripped them apart (which I most certainly get, being the youngest of seven children and having a sister like Evalita who is no longer alive to me), only for impending death and the possibility of fortune to bring them back home.

Buford's mother-in-law and the kids' no-nonsense grandmother - aka the force of nature called Mama Wheelis (played by Susan Adkins with so much grit and honesty that you'll swear she's kin to you) - does her best to keep the family together and speaking to one another despite their best efforts to rip the family tree limb from limb.

Evalita has dragged along her newest man, Harmony Rhodes (played to laidback, "hippie" perfection by Seth Tovey in what we are told is his stage debut), while Orville is joined by his long-suffering wife Marlene, who is played with a glorious sense of mirth by Joy Tilley Perryman. Perryman walks off with the acting honors among the cast, showing us Marlene's undaunted enthusiasm for life despite the churlishness and battering suffered by her at the hands of a mean, mean husband.

Certainly, there are more Southern stereotypes than you can shake a stick at in McGinnis' mounting of this entertaining piece, but there is plenty of heart to found as well. Shores writes characters who are at once terrifically over-the-top, but somehow grounded in all the chicken-fried realness of any Texas-set piece of fiction. Robert Harling may have expressed it best in Steel Magnolias: "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion," but it exemplifies the most winning aspects of this comedy, with its cornpone vernacular and country-music underscoring.

The production's faux-wood paneling and kitschy home décor provides an added character to the Turnover family, providing the actors a fun and homey setting in which to play out their squabbles and remembrances. But be forewarned: even with as much laughter as you can stand (even if some of it makes you feel uneasy), you may find yourself shedding a tear or two when the family gathers around the upright to sing "In the Garden."

• Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will. By Del Shores. Directed by David McGinnis. Presented by ACT 1, at Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Avenue, Nashville. Through January 31. Go to www.ACT1Online.com for details. Running time: 2 hours (including a ten-minute intermission).

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