THEATER REVIEW: The Queen of Bingo

Millbrook Playhouse has opened for their summer season. Millbrook has been my summer destination for 52 years and it looks as if this is going to be another fantastic season. The play selections run from  Mary Poppins to Dial M for Murder by way of Ring of Fire. Also, although I was happy to see some new names listed in future programs, I was happy to see some old favorites, too

THE QUEEN OF BINGO was a good choice to open the season. The full house obviously had a great time if the level of laughter was any indication. THE QUEEN OF BINGO may not be heavy in plot line, but fortunately the character actors playing the two sisters, with lots of help from the good Father Mac, had the talent to keep the action going. Each of the two acts was over before I knew it.

We have seen Shannon Agnew before on the stage at Millbrook, but as Babe she had a chance to go really wild. Shannon has the most “crazed” eyes and that alone would have told us that she was out of control, and her use of stage space was beautiful----except of course when she did a perfect Virgin Mary.

Courtney Cook as Sis, on the other hand, allowed us to see her thoughts through  very expressive facial expressions. Her conflict of truly worrying about her sister’s breakdown and concerns about the impression they were making in the bingo hall was touching… and very funny. I hope that Courtney is an actress that we see again. Her comedic timing is very natural and I want to see her in other parts

If you have ever played bingo, you know what an “early bird” is, but have you ever played a “middle bird”? During intermission, Father Mac led the audience through the fun of playing the middle bird for a chance to win a turkey. Father Mac, aka as Aaron Kelly, did a great job of working the audience to the point that the tension was thick. (My friend Norma won the turkey; we were so proud of her.)

THE QUEEN OF BINGO does not have a plot to cause an audience to hold its collective breath. Instead it depends on the interaction of the characters to keep that audience laughing. Lucky for us, it worked.

THE QUEEN OF BINGO will run until Sunday, July 21st in the Poorman Cabaret. Mary Poppins opens on June 18 on the Ryan Main Stage. Call the box office at 570-748-8083 for more information or go online to purchase tickets.

BOOK REVIEW: Tallgrass

On February 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order led to the assembly and incarceration of over 120,00 persons of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. These American citizens were forced from their homes to live in detention camps under very primitive conditions . Sandra Dallas uses this part of our history for her book TALLGRASS.

Thirteen-year-old Rennie lives on a sugar beet farm near the small town of Ellis, Colorado. She is in town with her father when the first busloads of Japanese arrive from California to live in the camp, Tallgrass, built near her home. The nasty remarks of some of the townspeople do not make sense to her. Nor does the fact that her father has to walk away from an angry confrontation when he goes to the defense of these newcomers.

Rennie herself has to learn to walk away from fights at school when her father hires several of the young men from Tallgrass to help with the planting of his beets. Rennie’s brother, along with most of the young men of the community, are serving in the military and the farmers need help. Having these “foreigners” in the community does not sit well with some of the people and when a young girl is raped and murdered the blame falls on the young men working for Rennie’s family.

TALLGRASS blends an uncomfortable part of American history with the coming of age of a young girl, a murder, and maybe some lessons in honesty and being human. Full of complex characters and some gritty scenes, the book never loses a touch of innocence, due in most part to the age of the narrator and the fact that it is told from her viewpoint.

The father/daughter relationship in TALLGRASS may remind the reader of To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, Rennie, like Scout, learns that bad things can happen to good people and that people are not always what they seem to be. The theme may be similar, but TALLGRASS stands on its own laurels.

Sandra Dallas is definitely one of my favorite authors and you will find her books mentioned in POV quite often. She is not afraid to tackle sensitive subjects with honesty and develops characters that draw the reader into the story until the fact that this might be a new way to see something out of your comfort zone is forgotten...and there is always someone to root for--- a very important element in a book.

I have enjoyed many of Ms. Dallas’ books, but TALLGRASS will stand out. The author says that she was inspired in part by the comparisons with Guantanamo Bay, but as I was reading it, I could not help but notice the similar acts of prejudice resulting in violence in the current news.

BOOK REVIEW: The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

Several years ago, on one of our trips to The Outer Banks of North Carolina, I discovered the author Diane Chamberlain. Her Keeper of the Light trilogy was the perfect read for an area known for its lighthouses. Since then, she is one of the authors that I like to bring on our vacation to Hatteras Island. Some of her books have been good some not so much. THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES was good.

Sixteen year old CeeCee Wilkes has been alone since the death of her mother four years earlier. She had spent most of those four years in various foster home, but is now on her own. She is working as a waitress in a college town diner, saving money to start college.

When grad student Timothy Gleason becomes her boyfriend/lover there is nothing that she will not do for him. He makes her feel important and loved, the first that she has felt that way since the death of her mother.

Twenty years later, CeeCee is now Eve Bailey and is happily married with two grown daughters. Her life has been good, until the day that she sees on the news that Timothy has been arrested for the murder of a woman and her infant. Eve knows that she is the only person who can save Timothy from the death penalty . She had been there when the woman died;Timothy had not. Telling the truth may save Timothy, but it will destroy the new life that she has so carefully created for herself and the family that she loves.

THE SECRET LIFE OF CEECEE WILKES is a good book for vacation reading. The heroine is a young girl who quickly arouses our sympathy. The early chapters begin with a section from the letters that her mother had written to her before she died. We are on CeeCee’s side even when she is responsible for the unthinkable.

Many people in the book have secrets of their own, some that we never learn, We meet people who live lives completely off the grid making us wonder how easy it would be to develop a new identity and go on with a regular, normal life.

Author Diane Chamberlain makes us take a look at what constitutes family love and what do you do when loyalty and the sense of right and wrong clash with that love. Her books may be a hit or miss thing, but if you need a light vacation read, she might be worth the gamble.

BOOK REVIEW: Strength in What Remains

Geography is not one of my strong points nor would I ever win in the category of international politics. I had never heard of the country Burundi nor had any idea of the wave of genocide that took place there in the early 1990’s. Pulitzer Prize winner author Tracy Kidder’s STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS not only made me aware of the horrors of that time in Burundi, but introduced me to some of the people who lived through it.

Deogratias has arrived in the United States with two hundred dollars, no friends and no English. He had escaped the horrors of his native Burundi through a series of what could only be called miracles. He had been a medical student with good grades and a bright future.

In New York he found himself homeless and at times in situations as dangerous as the ones that he had left back home. The only job that he could find is delivering groceries, but fortune brings him to the notice of several people who help him get on his feet.

One of the people that he meets is Doctor Paul Farmer. Doctor Farmer was instrumental in organizing Partners in Health and a personal hero of mine. His influence helped to open more doors in the medical field for Deo and gave him the means to eventually follow up on his dream of opening a health clinic in Burundi.

Deo also came to the attention of Tracy Kidder and he brings us to the heart of the story. Over time, the author was able to get Deo to open himself to talk about the horrors that he had lived through. In time, they were able to make several trips back to Deo’s native village. On a pilgrimage that followed Deo’s journey to stay alive, we,too, are subjected to the atrocities that happen in parts of the world that we never notice

STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS is a brutally honest book, but Tracy Kidder has the talent to keep the reader involved.  Kidder gives us real, live heroes, heroes who should grace the covers of our magazines. I first became aware of Paul Farmer in Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountain. (This book should be on everyone’s must read list.) Now and then his name will appear in a buried article about brave and dedicated people of our times and I feel that I am reading about an old friend. I will feel that way about Deogratias as well’

It is important today that we know that atrocities are happening in parts of our world, in countries that have no commercial importance to the United States - those countries we seem to be aware of. We need to also know that there are many of us who have the courage not only to be survivors, but to do their part in helping to make the situation a little better. Tracy Kidder helps us to know some of these people.

BOOK REVIEW: When the Heart Waits

I said to my soul, be still and wait...

So the darkness shall be the light,

and the stillness the dancing,

T. S. Eliot

This fragment from a T.S.Eliot poem is the appropriate introduction to Sue Monk Kidd’s personal journal, WHEN THE HEART WAITS. Ms. Kidd is best known for her bestselling novels, The Secret Life of Bees and The Invention of Wings. I loved both novels, but as an inspirational writer, she hits a personal chord with me.

WHEN THE HEART WAITS is the author’s year long journey during a midlife crisis, going from the depths of feeling that life has no meaning to starting to find the unique person she was meant to be. In a world of quick fixes, Ms.Kidd learns the lesson of active waiting from a found cocoon.

The use of the cocoon as a metaphor for rebirth is not uncommon, but Ms. Kidd puts the emphasis on the fact that the larva is waiting, alone, in the dark. The waiting during a dark period of life is the important part of the growth.

The book is filled with relatable literary references. Naturally we see quotes from Thomas Merton and Henry Thoreau, but Frank L. Baum’s Tin Man is an example of how we can shut off our physical feelings and Rapunzel teaches us that we have the power to help ourselves. (Why didn’t she cut her hair and use it as a ladder to climb down. She allowed other people to.)

Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus is often quoted. I have used this charming, little book as a simple explanation of death. Ms. Kidd uses it  to illustrate how frightening growth can be, but also how rewarding.

One of my favorite quotes in the book comes from the author herself:  

“People who want life hammered down into tight, legalistic certainties seem to me to be the people most insecure inside. Frankly, the folks who frighten me the most are those who are dead certain about everything, who have all the answers and no questions.”

 We are reminded that the creature that emerges from the cocoon is unique onto itself.

Contemplative spirituality should be an important part of our lives, whether we are at the morning, afternoon or evening phase of life. As we age we are changing. Sue Monk Kidd points out that  quiet, self reflection helps us to become the being that God has planned for us. WHEN THE HEART WAITS is an inspirational book written by an author of great talent and spirituality.

William Blake summed it up perfectly:

                      “To see the World in a Grain of Sand                         And Heaven in a Wild Flower,                         Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,                         And Eternity in an hour.”

BOOK REVIEW: In Pale Battalions

Oh, the wondrous things one finds when cleaning the back row of the bottom shelf of a bookcase. Author Robert Goddard was unknown to me, but a copy of his IN PALE BATTALIONS caught my attention and I have added another author to my must read list.

Leonora Galloway’s life had all of the signs of a good Gothic novel. She had been born ten months after her father had been killed fighting in France during the first World War and her mother had died shortly after. Sent to live with her paternal grandfather and his young wife at the decaying manor Meongate, her life became one of loneliness and cold cruelty.

During World War I, Meongate had been opened to select soldiers who needed the peaceful English country side to recover from their wounds. Instead of peace, they found a suspiciously pregnant young widow, a murder, a suicide and a general atmosphere of wrongness. This veil of evil continues to hang over the manor as Leonora grows to adulthood.

As Leonora reaches the end of her own life, she goes back to try to solve all of the mysteries of the family that had so many devastating events in its history.

The plot to IN PALE BATTALIONS is so much more than a typical Gothic novel. Author Robert Goddard takes the reader from the killing fields of Flanders and the horrors of war to the hidden evil of a once elegant English country estate.

His characters are complex. The fact that the story is told from several different points of view, we get a chance to see some of their motivations. I liked the many levels exposed of even some very minor characters from soldiers about to be killed on battlefields to flamboyant artists of the pre beatnik generation.  Even with being able to get into some of the main characters’ heads, there are some mysterious events left unexplained - as there should be.     

Most of all, I loved the mood that Goddard was able to create. The book has an old fashioned feel to it. There is a formality to the language that gives a dignity to the people living within the pages. Considering the time span, from 1916 to the present, it rang authentic. It reminded me in many ways of Daphne du Maurier’s  Rebecca. We have the brooding country estate, the young innocent protagonist, and the evil antagonist.

I liked IN PALE BATTALIONS for the fact that we met some very heroic characters. ( I thought Rebecca’s characters a little wimpy). Here are people who had to make moral judgements, whether it concerned keeping dangerous secrets or facing death during war.

I hope Robert Goddard’s other books are as strong.

  

BOOK REVIEW: The Escape

THE ESCAPE is the third book in David Baldacci’s series featuring John Puller, combat veteran and special agent with the United States Army. After reading Zero Day and The Forgotten, I could not wait for the continuation of John’s story, especially since I knew this one would include his older brother Robert.

Following in his famous father’s footsteps, Robert Puller had been a military hero. Exceptionally intelligent and a computer genius Robert was on the fast track to becoming head of the nation’s top security agency until he was found guilty of treason.

The evidence against him was clear and iron tight. He was caught copying sensitive documents and later photographed giving them to an enemy agent. Crimes that should have spelled his death, but instead he was given a life sentence in a federal prison that had never had an escape. The morning after a violent storm, Robert’s bed is found to contain the corpse of an unknown man, but no Robert.

John Puller is usually the agent called in to solve the unsolvable cases for the government and he is considered the ideal person to hunt down this new threat to national security, his own brother. Pulled between loyalty to his country and love for his older brother, John finds himself in a situation where all of the people around him are suspects.

When David Baldacci is good, he is very good and so far the John Puller books are very good. Baldacci mixes fast action with intelligent espionage and involves characters that can keep a reader guessing. THE ESCAPE has it all. His car chases kept me from breathing at times, yet his creative use of computer skills intrigued me. It seems every time the news programs explain a new use, or danger, of the electronic world, Baldacci has already used it in a plot line.

Another thing that puts Baldacci on my regular author- to- read list is his ability to create complex characters.  His heroes are always slightly flawed. I find myself approaching everyone in the book with skepticism. I think that after reading so many of his thrillers, I start expecting any romantic interest to be killed off, especially if they end up in bed with the hero. In THE ESCAPE John’s female partner, Veronica Knox, was particularly well done. My feelings for her went from full suspicion to pity and back to fearing for John Puller’s life.

Usually I find the first in a David Baldacci series to be the best written and then each book can vary on the scale of good to not so good. So far I am enjoying the John Puller books very much. In fact, I can not wait for the next one. Enough hints have been dropped about his and Robert’s parents that I will have trouble waiting. (The father, a military legend, is hospitalized with dementia and the mother had mysteriously disappeared when the boys were young children. Now, you know there is a blockbuster story there!)

David Baldacci deserves his large fan base.