REVIEW: Taboos shattered in well-staged 'Bluebonnet Court'

By PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 26, 2008 9:55 AM PDT ∞

Blue Bonnet Court may not look like much from the outside, but inside the weather-beaten walls of this Texas roadside motel thrives a veritable petri dish of racial, sexual and religious taboos.

In its well-directed San Diego premiere, co-produced by Diversionary and Moxie Theatres, Zsa Zsa Gershick's World War II-era comedy-drama "Bluebonnet Court" (yes, the play name combines the words Blue and Bonnet) packs a motherlode of hot-button issues into its compact script. While it strains credulity that religious bigotry, homosexuality, racism, alcoholism, rape and suicide can all crop up at Blue Bonnet Court in the few days it takes to repair a car bumper, Delicia Turner Sonnenberg's sensitive direction, nuanced performances by the cast and Gershick's ear for regional dialects and quirky humor ease the ride.

Set in Austin in 1944, the play begins when Helen Burke ---- a crusty, traveling correspondent for the New York Herald-Tribune ---- arrives on the steps of Blue Bonnet Court, suitcase and typewriter in hand, after her car crashes into a tree. Times are tough, so innkeeper Lila Jean Webb is happy for the business, even if her hard-drinking war veteran husband, Roy Glenn, finds Helen's Jewish heritage and distinctly male attire off-putting.

Helen is heading west to Hollywood where her secret lover ---- a heavily peroxided femme-fatale film star ---- has secured for her a studio screenwriting job. Before the play is done, Helen's girlfriend, Laura, will be pushed into a sham marriage with a gay matinee idol by the publicity-fearing studio bosses, and Helen will find unexpected love of her own at Blue Bonnet Court in the arms of Orla Mae Bird, a reserved but book-smart black maid who longs to escape the segregated confines of south central Texas.

Meanwhile, Roy Glenn drinks to forget the young German soldiers he slaughtered in North Africa and the homosexual tendencies he struggles against with little success. And faced with her husband's often-violent indifference, the lonely, desperate Lila Jean turns to Helen for affection. If those aren't enough plot twists for you, there's Nanalu Branch, the slutty town librarian who passes for white, but whose black roots show when she's liquored up after a night out on the town with the local soldier boys.

All five residents of Blue Bonnet Court are hiding secrets, and each will be transformed ---- some believably, some not so much ---- in the course of the two-hour, 15-minute play.

Gershick's gift is in writing well-rounded characters who speak in colorful styles ---- Helen with the Yiddish slang of her Manhattan upbringing; Nanalu with the boozy, bluesy rhythms of her native St. Louis; and Lila Jean with the clipped-but-courteous conservatism of Bible Belt Texas. Sprinkled liberally throughout are comic nuggets of nostalgia in the form of live radio broadcasts (serials, commercials, war reports and fire-and-brimstone preachers) and film scenes (starring Helen's film vixen ex). The oddball radio bits, Joel Daavid's sandblasted motor inn set, Mia Bane Jacobs and Jason Bieber's golden patina lighting, and Jennifer Brawn Gittings' apt period costumes bring an antiquated realism to the story.

Sonnenberg directs her strong cast with attention to character, personality, period and detail. She softens some of the script's wrinkles ---- for example, how did this little motel become such a Peyton Place? Why does Helen cheat on her lover so readily, and recover from her loss so quickly? And how can Roy Glenn go from a violent, self-loathing drunk homosexual to a chipper, obedient, sober husband practically overnight?

Wendy Waddell leads the cast in an understated and honest performance as Helen, the tough-skinned but tender-hearted reporter who's comfortable in her own skin as a Jewish lesbian. Monique Gaffney speaks volumes with silences and body language as the wise, wistful Orla Mae. Jo Anne Glover paints magnolia softness over the brittle disappointment of Lila Jean. Leigh Scarrit packs scene-stealing thunder into her strange, mournful turn as the ill-fated Nanalu. And Christopher Buess has the perfect period look and finely detailed features for Roy Glenn, who talks tough but keeps a sketchbook of the nude young men he spies swimming at the local lake.

Lisel Gorell-Getz and Fred Harlow complete the cast in a rich variety of roles as radio and film characters (though their constant runs on and offstage with the microphone could be staged with less distraction).

For a play so rife with gay and sexual themes, "Bluebonnet Court" is on the tame side, dealing subtly with most situations in the same whispered, winking way they would have been handled in the 1940s. Unexpected turns of plot and a generous slice of humor make a stop at this Texas motel a pleasant diversion for anyone motoring through San Diego's theater scene this month.

"Bluebonnet Court"

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through April 13

Where: Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., San Diego

Tickets: $29-$33

Info: (619) 220-0097

Web: www.diversionary.org; www.moxietheatre.com

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