The Traveling Lady--A Beautifully Realized Play 

By Joseph Cervelli

Some unwind by having a cup of camomile tea or a glass of wine. While I find both to be  helpful, what has even more of a calming affect on me is being immersed in a Horton Foote play. The late wonderful playwright who gave us among others the glowing “Trip to Bountiful” and wrote the screenplay for the classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” is having his 1955 play, “The Traveling Lady” revived at the Cherry Lane Theater for a limited engagement.

While not a perfect play and despite some unnecessarily fussy direction by Austin Pendleton , it is still Hoote’s words and situations that have a beautifully real feel to them. Quite fortunately, it is also blessed with a lovely cast who personify the characters he has created. 

As in other Hoote plays, we are in a small Texas town 1950. He dos not signify it being Harrison, TX, where others have taken place but no matter. We immediately find out that a neighbor has passed away. We don’t know a lot about her except she is described by the Judge (George Morfogen) who is lounging in Clara Breedlove’s (Angelina Fiordellisi) backyard as a “funny little woman.” It seems that the late woman took in the rowdy Henry Thomas (PJ Sosko) as a young man whom she disciplined  by beating him “break his spirit.”  Henry eventually moved to Tyler, TX ,marrying  the lovely Georgette (Jean Lichty) but in a drunken stupor killed another man and spent a number of  years in the penitentiary. He never saw his young daughter Margaret Rose (Korinne Tetlow) but is getting out early thanks to Georgette and plans on meeting her where the play takes place. Upon arriving, Georgette is unaware that Henry has been released a month prior and is living in Mrs. Tillman’s (Jill Tanner) house doing handyman jobs. Tillman whose husband was an alcoholic wants to reform this young man despite his still having problems. 

There are several other characters in this tenderly soul-searching play. Slim Murray (Larry Bull) who is Clara’s brother is still trying to recover from the death of his estranged wife Laura. We never learn as to why Laura left this fellow who seems to have sympathetic veins running through him. Nor are we sure why he refuses to attend the funeral of the recently deceased woman. We surmise he felt no affection for someone who might have added to Henry’s problems. Lynn Cohen almost steals the show as the very funny but dotty neighbor Mrs. Mavis who is always trying to get away from the daughter Sitter Mavis (Karen Ziemba) she lives with. I was surprised that Hallie Foote the playwright’s daughter and great interpreter of his work was not in this play for she would have fit the role of Sitter perfectly. But, thankfully, the always reliable Ziemba does  not fail to disappoint as a woman who feels that life has passed her by. Just watch the wistful gaze that Ziemba has down pat as Sitter. Sosko is excellent as the broken Henry who gets into another bad situation at the play’s end. While he is not responsible for what has occurred, as someone who always found himself in the thicket of problems and being drunk again, he offers not objections when arrested. 

There is never a tempest of greed in most of Hoote’s illuminating works with the exception of his exceptionally fine “Dividing the Estate.”  His plays as this one deals with finding the correct path to walk down and if you take the wrong detour hoping to find the right people to help you back on the way to redemption. In Hoote’s optimistic way of thinking we all have purpose even when life feels devoid of meaning. 

There is a very touching line that Sitter speaks near the end of the play to the effect that “my whole life would have been different if I’d just learned to dance.” While it takes more than that to change your life sometimes it is the small steps that help guide you. 

PHOTOS: CAROL ROSEGG

Tickets are available at the Cherry Lane Theater 38 Commerce Street or by calling 212.352.3101.As of this date the limited engagement ends July 16.