These kids are not The Young and the Restless. Bless their hearts, they're The Young and the Gauche and the Clueless. In spite of themselves and the devout ignorance of their Appalachian rearing, they move in glacial fashion toward an attraction. Whether that incipient feeling will lead anywhere important is something that playwright Arlene Hutton conceals masterfully until the last refrain of Nibroc.
It's worth the wait in Circle Theatre's new production, which Karen Lamb has staged with economy and insight on an almost bare stage in downtown Fort Worth.
As is often the case, the first victory was in casting. As May, Gigi Cervantes is alternately prim, shy, feisty and (in Raleigh's words) prickly - not an easy gamut to run. Derik Webb scores instant audience empathy as the more likable Raleigh. But still, Kentucky water runs deep, and Webb teases us adroitly with this aspect of the young man.
In the baggage car of the train that May and Raleigh share are coffins carrying novelists F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathaniel West - symbols of Raleigh's literary aspirations that seem unattainable. This is a clever-seeming device, but means little to the story beyond its function as a conversation gambit for Raleigh.
Two subsequent scenes find the couple meeting in 1942 and 1943 back home in rural Kentucky. A galaxy of emotions is uncorked here. Hutton's script has the language to match every moment. Included is a term (blurted by Cervantes) that I haven't heard since I was a boy in Arkansas: "jake leg."
The various ambiences of the 1940s era permeate: You hear Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, then Bing Crosby. On the visual side, costume designer Barbara C. Cox remembers to put seamed stockings on Cervantes.
It's a sad, funny and satisfying time trip.
Perry Stewart, (817) 390-7712
