Echo is a young, intelligent girl who has been left in her grandmother’s care. She loves her grandmother, Dorothea, but needs her mother’s love as well. Echo attempts to gain the affection of her absent mother, Artie, by winning the National Spelling Bee.
The play is introduced by Echo and in flashbacks we learn so much about these three women. Dorothea had been an intelligent young woman who wanted to go to college. The times and a dominating father force her into a marriage and thus into a boring existence. At a party someone suggests that eccentricity is fun and she adopts it with great enthusiasm. As she says, “ Eccentricity saved my life.”
Dorothea’s projects and a personal tragedy end up driving a teen-aged Artie away, but when Artie finds herself with a child of her own, Dorothea is there to take over. Artie still has to find a life of her own and Echo is left in Dorothea’s care.
What I found fascinating about the play was how three generations of women of extraordinary intelligence had to handle life. Dorothea had no chance for an education. Artie fought for hers and it seemed taken for granted that Echo would have her chance.
It is hard to get across the power of this show. The director did an excellent job of making use of limited space that once was a milk barn. The set was minimal and in no way distracted from the action and the costuming was perfect for each character.
I am one of those people who does an audience check now and then during a play. This audience was caught up in the story. The woman sitting next to me paid the ultimate compliment, “ I forgot that they were actors.” Eileen Glen played the eccentric Dorothea with just the right touch of warmth. Shana Wiersum was the torn daughter Artie. She quietly made us feel her confusion about her love for her daughter.
Most of the weight of the show fell on Erin Long’s young shoulders. Erin is another actor who has been a regular at Millbrook for several years. Her future in the theater seems assured.
Go see ELEEMOSYNARY. By the end of the evening you will know how to pronounce the word (and lots of others) and you will have had a good time.
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