FORT WORTH – Valentine's Day came to Fort Worth a month early on Friday
evening.
That's when Circle Theatre opened its 2002 season with Arlene Hutton's
Last Train to Nibroc. Romance is in the air in this charming two-character
play. While it's crammed with sentiment, it's too funny and hardheaded
to be merely sentimental.
The long first scene takes place on a train heading east from California
about a year before America's entry into World War II. A young man in a
soldier's uniform takes a seat next to a lone young woman and begins a
quiet flirtation. She's reading a book, and he confides that his
ambition is to write fiction as she tells him she's always wanted to be
a missionary.
Their meeting seems fated – as does almost everything to the young man's
vivid imagination. He is especially impressed by the coincidence that
the bodies of two of the country's leading novelists, F. Scott
Fitzgerald and Nathanael West, are riding this very train en route to
their funerals.
Naturally, the course of true love never did run as smooth or as
straight as a train on its tracks – otherwise there would be no story,
no play. Ms. Hutton follows the paths of her star-crossed couple for
21/2 years, giving us a miniature Jane Austen novel of false starts and
misunderstandings in less than two hours.
Director Karen Lamb has cast a pair of winsome actors, Gigi Cervantes
and Derik Webb, and allowed them to run with their roles. You can
imagine a subtler and more naturalistic interpretation, but not one that
is warmer-hearted. Besides, for two characters to maintain interest over
a whole evening, a bit of theatrical pizazz never hurts.
The actors are pretty much tied down to their train seat for the first
scene. The very simple staging merely gives them different benches on
different corners of the playing area for the other two. Lovely lighting
and sound designs provide the atmosphere, and the performers make great
use of all that room to roam around in.
Everybody's tired of reading those critics' blurbs in the newspapers
telling us to "see it with someone you love." But be careful about
Last Train to Nibroc. You may just wind up falling for anybody you do see
it with. Romance can be contagious.
Last Train to Nibroc, presented by Circle Theatre, 230 W. Fourth St.,
Fort Worth, Thursdays through Saturdays through Feb. 16. Tickets $15 to
$25. Call 817-877-3040, or go to
www.circletheatre.com.
