By Carol Davis
SAN DIEGO–When it comes to dividing up the family estate between brothers and sisters, any amount of civility goes unnoticed in playwright Horton Foote’s last comedy/drama. In Dividing the Estate the three adult Gordon siblings (Lucille, Lewis, called Brother and Mary Jo) who assemble at their childhood home, for a supposed dinner gathering headed by matriarch Stella Gordon (the beautiful Elizabeth Ashley), can bear witness to this. The subject is not dinner; it is the best-known family secret about money from the family estate and who gets what share of it.
Everyone, including the two spoiled granddaughters, Emily (Jenny Dare Paulin plays up the unpleasant, obnoxious, spoiled and bored wealthy brat) and Sissie (Nichole Lawrence) of daughter Mary Jo (Hallie Foote), mope about waiting to see what will happen to the family estate. Since working to earn their own money is out of the question for any of the heirs, everyone has a stake in Stella’s land. Taking it a bit further, even the domestic help (yes they are ‘colored’), Mildred and Cathleen (Pat Bowie and Keiana Richard) want to know how the pie will be split in their favor as well.
Just recently, yours truly reviewed another Foote play, The Trip To Bountiful, which aired at the South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa and gave it five stars. The Trip To Bountiful was mounted in San Diego many, many moons ago and for some reason we have not seen another one of his plays until now, unless memory fails.
Foote, whose claim to fame includes writing the screenplay for To Kill A Mockingbird and Tender Mercies went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1995 for his play The Young Man From Atlanta. Born in Wharton, Texas, in 1916 a great deal of his plays are semi-autobiographical and deal with life in small-town Texas communities where he pictures ordinary people doing ordinary, every day things which, some claim are a reflection of his own lifestyle.
Let us hope and pray the good folks in Dividing The Estate are more fictional than real-life relatives of the Foote family, although it could be argued that every family has its share of greed when the thought of a huge inheritance is at stake.
Here in the fictitious town of Harrison, Texas, 1987 we meet up with the Gordon family. Their sprawling mansion (Jeff Cowie’s set covers the entire stage) has all the accoutrements of old Southern wealth yet is more worn than pristine. Living at home are the eldest daughter, Lucille (a wonderful Penny Fuller) and her grown son, Son (Devon Abner in a very somber performance) who was pulled from his last year in college to run the estate after the death of his father.
Lewis Gordon, (Horton Foote, Jr. was sort of out of it on opening night) the only son is an off again/on again drunk and gambler, who over the years has borrowed against his inheritance the tidy sum of two hundred thousand dollars. He also lives in the mansion and is after his uncle to advance him yet another ten thousand dollars to fix another mess he got himself in that involved a very young woman who works at the town’s hamburger joint. And, Oh, did I mention that the siblings all get an allowance from the estate?
What comes through loud and clear is that the estate like the landed gentry of the past has seen its day. Its purpose of feeding the clan has gone the way of the horse and buggy although Stella thinks it can be done again. Bob, the real estate mogul, hustler and Mary Jo’s husband still wants to drill for oil hoping their fortune can be resurrected and bring in the money they all think they deserve, but even that last-ditch effort may be too little too late and…Stella is dead set against it.
But like every family dynamic, everyone has a say and a right to change his or her mind. This family, however has only one thought in mind and that is money, so no matter how many times the balance between selling and drilling goes back and forth, they are all stuck on their own flat feet. No one in the cast can rise above the lackluster script and there seems no place for it to go.
Even with the combination of Foote’s daughter Hallie (she received a Tony nomination for her role as Mary Jo in the Broadway production) and son Horton Foote, Jr. that appeared to be an attraction and handsome addition to the play and a tribute to the late playwright, the production came up short. Now let’s add the seasoned, witty and lovely Elizabeth Ashley and, based on reviews from the Broadway production (it comes to us almost fully intact from The Booth Theatre production including director Michael Wilson), one might conclude that is would be an entertaining star-studded evening of theatre. But conclusions can be false and the folks in Dividing The Estate are as annoying and irritating in their antics as ants at a picnic and even less interesting.
Notwithstanding there were some fine performances on opening night. No one can deny Elizabeth Ashley her place as the matriarch completely in charge of her estate and family. She is a fresh and genteel yet witty and fierce force with which to be reckoned. James DeMarse’s Bob is just fine as the almost ignored son-in-law and husband to the hyper, over the top Hallie’s Mary Jo. Penny Fuller is another blast from the past whose timing and steadfastness gives the play an anchor and Kelly McAndrew’s Pauline, Son’s fiancée gives some much needed outsider perspective.
When all is said and done, dividing the Gordon estate falls to the hands of the lawyers and no matter what amount of harrumphing and praying Mary Jo does, the family real estate will be divided much like the family itself and no one will be richer for the experience.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through Feb. 12th
Organization: Old Globe Theatre
Phone: 619-234-5623
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park
Ticket Prices: start at $29.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: Conrad Prebys Theatre