BWW Reviews: ABUNDANCE at the Beckett Theatre Is a Sweeping Saga of Friendship, Fate and Mail-Order Brides

WANTED: A girl who will love, honest, true and not sour; a nice little cooing dove, and willing to work in flour.
--Actual 1860s mail-order bride advertisement from the book Hearts West by Chriss Enss

In the late 1800s, the ratio of men to women in the American West was 12-1. Back East there were an estimated 30,000 single women, many war widows. Homesteaders wanted wives for companionship, progeny, chores, and whatever gentility could be imported. Lives were often hardscrabble and lonely. Correspondence through personal ads in newspapers and broadsides seemed the only way to secure a respectable mate.

Many of these men misrepresented themselves and/or their circumstances assuming the women would stay having made the trip and often arriving without friends or resources. Those who were illiterate could pay people to write letters. On the other hand, women, equally prone to lying, sometimes cashed-in tickets sent by prospective husbands or disappeared having detrained to find fiancés were less desirable than painted. The hope of social and economic freedom likely drew these women west more often than fairy tale images of excitement and romance, but both were present.

Mousy Bess Johnson (Tracy Middendorf, right in photo top) has been stranded at a stage coach station in the Wyoming Territory 10 days, waiting to be collected by a man with whom she's corresponded. Long out of money, at the edge of desperation, she's sold the pearl buttons off her dress for food. Her fiancé's letters, though few, were thoughtful and poetic. Naïve wish for fairy tale love is all she has left.

Macon Hill (Kelly McAndrew, left in photo top ) blows in like a crowd, loud, friendly, exuberant. Her incipient marriage to a stranger is a means to quite another end. "I've come to see the elephant, what's out there!" Macon is practical and cynical. Life will be rough, their men likely ugly, but oh, what an adventure! "I'd rip the wings off an angel if I thought that's help me fly. 'Omona make it up as I go along."

The two women couldn't be more different, yet the kind of bond that's formed in wartime foxholes ensues. It turns out that Bess's gentle husband-to-be has died. Instead she's picked up by his brother Jack (Todd Lawson, far right in photo), good looking but as mean as they come. Determined to make something sacred and honorable of her marriage, Bess looks around the cabin assuring him she knows how to get rid of ticks and fleas. "Don't start messin' with things," he snaps.

Will Curtis (Ted Koch, second from left in photo) comes for Macon. A well mannered widower, he's apologetic about a lost eye (he wears a patch) and sweetly deferential. It's clear who the stronger member of this union will be. Unfortunately, Macon is physically repulsed by Will. She'll be moderately accommodating and take things in hand, but no more.

Veering from signature explorations of contemporary southern women's experience, playwright Beth Henley's immersive, episodic piece encompasses 25 years in the radically changing lives of Bess and Macon (and their men) starting about 1860. Jack misspends his brother's legacy, drinks, daydreams, steals, and abuses Bess at every turn. Will, denied affection by Macon, tries to give her his dead wife's ring which is rejected as second hand. His first Christmas gift to her is a glass eye so that she might find him more acceptable. Macon assures Bess they'll run away together.

When successive tragedy strikes Bess and Jack, Macon (and Will) take them in--ostensibly a temporary measure. While the Flans are dependent, the Curtises grow successful due to Macon's cleverness. Bess finally gives up on her marriage and is ready to run, but her friend now has reasons to stay. One of these is Jack. Without recourse, Bess takes off only to be captured by Indians (we don't see this or her time with them), after which the worm turns in unimaginable, wrenching and profoundly specific ways.

Abundance was commissioned in 1989 and is based on true life stories of pioneering women. Central to the play is the experience of the real Olive Oatman who was kidnapped by Indians among whom she lived for some years before being ransomed back by the American government. Clearly well researched, Abundance manages to feel both intimate and sweeping. Bess and Macon are fully fleshed out (Jack and Will less so), situations plausible, emotional insight apparent. Watch hair combs and moustaches for plot clues. Though it would benefit from editing, the piece is consistently, sometimes edge-of-one's-seat engrossing.

Tracy Middendorf (Bess) creates a woman both palpably insecure and willfully determined. It's a testament to the actress's vivid early persona that when conversion occurs it doesn't dislodge original impression but rather clarifies it. Middendorf commits to each phase of Bess's story so thoroughly, one assumes interior life. The expression on her face when clapped in irons is priceless.

Kelly McAndrew is a roller coaster ride as Macon. I found myself thinking of Peter Pan. Her passion is so magnetic that the audience is as drawn to her as are other characters. McAndrew exudes intelligence, confidence, and ambition in this role. Facets of Macon's personality such as enormous generosity parallel to fatal selfishness are deftly drawn from the same dominant source.

Ted Koch embodies Will Curtis's weak, suffering with effectively mournful presence. Todd Lawson (Jack Flan) delivers a kind of condensed fury, tensing the theater between feral eruptions. Later subservience is equally credible. Jeff Talbott (right, center) ably realizes Professor Elmore Crome (I'm not giving this away). Flickers of perception pass across his character's face adding dimension.

Director Jenn Thompson makes one feel like a voyeur. When unexpressed, emotions are evident, when manifest, frequently physically, they're visceral. Characters are defined by carriage as well as dialogue and allotted time to think. Outbursts are never too big to be credible. The stage and minimal set are well used.

Scrupulous attention has been paid to details. Appearance of dirt on hands, faces and clothes directly reflects activity and state of mind. Tracy Christensen's costume design carries awareness further with gradual small adjustments indicating both financial circumstances and a character's attention to herself/himself. A better pair of boots, a less basic blouse or fresh shirt, a set of catalog-bought curls, a hair ribbon . . . nothing changes suddenly, but rather piece by piece. Brava.

Wilson Chin's evocative set is a metaphorically a textured blank canvas with raw edges. Toby Algya--sound design and original music--offers evocative tunes that sound traditional. Fight Chorographer Seth Andrew Bridges does not, unfortunately, achieve realism.

Marielle Solan Photography

TACT Theatre presents
Abundance by Beth Henley
Directed by Jenn Thompson
Beckett Theatre, 410 West 42nd St. http://tactnyc.org/
Through March 28, 2015

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