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Peer Reviews Bluefish Cove
Will Reel You In Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley Entire contents are copyright © 2008, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.
Pandora Productions, Louisville's only GLBT theatre company, has another hit on their hands with their current production of Jane Chambers' Last Summer at Bluefish Cove. Everything about this production is top-notch, from the script to the actors, from the set and lighting design to Michael Drury's stylish direction. It's a show that will move you like few others can. The play originated in 1980 off-Broadway with a young Jean Smart leading its cast (she was understudied by Mercedes Ruehl). It is considered a milestone in lesbian theatre. The play is made all the more moving due to a sad real-life irony about its origins: Chambers wrote it as a tribute to a good friend who had died of cancer, only to be diagnosed with it herself two years later. She passed away in 1983, and this play is her most enduring legacy. Briefly describing the plot makes it sound like a lesbian sex farce: Eva (Raquel Cecil), a heterosexual woman who has lived a very sheltered life, has just walked out on her twelve-year marriage. She drives until she comes to a beachside vacation spot called Bluefish Cove and decides to rent a cabin there. What she doesn't know is that the Cove is populated solely by gay women who at first try to conceal their sexuality from her. But that is where the potential farce ends. What follows is a deeply moving story centering on Lil (Jessica Scharff), a free spirit terminally ill with cancer who is at the Cove to spend her final summer laughing and fishing with her best friends, and unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with Eva. There are really no surprises in the story; it plays out pretty much as you would expect it to. This is no doubt because we have seen many variations on this theme before, thanks largely to several more popular shows that followed it. Structurally and tonally, the play is very similar to, say, Steel Magnolias, or, especially, Love! Valour! Compassion! Both of those shows were strongly influenced by Bluefish Cove. That does not diminish its impact, however, and the show is a classic in its own right for a good reason. Normally I would point out any places that a show could use some fine tuning, because even the most generous reviewer can find some room for improvement somewhere. However, I am hard pressed to find a single flaw in this production! All of the performances were strong, without a single weak link in its cast, and Drury's direction keeps the story flowing without ever bogging down. There are some particularly strong performances that deserve mentioning. Scharff is absolutely fantastic as Lil; she makes the character funny and lively and never gives in to temptation to play the character overly tragic as her illness progresses. Cecil's Eva is quite believable as she progresses from naïve heterosexual housewife to an out and proud lesbian who can't wait to come out to her family. Carol Tyree Williams turns in a fine comic performance as Rae, a former housewife who left her husband for another woman, but still enjoys being a stay-at-home mom. John Witzke's set and Cristy Bohannon Wegman's lighting design are also very impressive, realistically evoking a beachside cabin and stretch of beach — no small feat, considering the small space in the Bunbury Theatre. Overall it is a strong and evocative production that forces you to think while you are laughing and crying — and that is just what good theatre is supposed to do.
Last Summer at Bluefish Cove
Tickets: (502) 216-5502 Posted March 29, 2008
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