Grace & Glorie
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Cast: Estelle Parsons (Grace Stiles), Lucie Arnaz (Gloria Whitmore). Toting a thermos of chicken soup but not an ounce of human tenderness, a citified hospice volunteer played by Lucie Arnaz -- the second half of "Grace & Glorie"-- comes to the aid of the first half, a dying 90 -year-old Blue Ridge mountain woman (Estelle Parsons) whose cantankerous ways and stubborn resistance to anything post-indoor plumbing spell "personality clash" from the get-go. The pre-determined heart-tugger of an outcome of this formula comedy makes its presence known quicker than the God-fearing Grace can mutter "Good gravy," but playwright Tom Ziegler's affection for his characters and some moments of simpatico acting from the two stars make the play a mildly pleasant, if utterly predictable, diversion.
Had the playwright not been so intent on broadcasting every motivation and character trait so blatantly, "Grace & Glorie" could have been even more effective. Gloria Muzio's unambiguous direction doubly ensures a complete lack of subtext. "Did I want too much?" muses a grieving Gloria. "Like our sister Eve , did I bite into the forbidden fruit?" As if that awkward bit of dialogue weren't enough of a groaner, Muzio soon has the character biting into an apple, leaving audience to wonder only how such heavy hands could lift so much as a grape.
Gloria's entrance (the character's name is Gloria, though Grace insists on Glorie) leaves no more to the imagination. Sweeping into the rustic cabin (well designed by Edward Gianfrancesco) in a chic businesslike suit and no-nonsense demeanor, Gloria is more a wonderment than a godsend to the bed-ridden, cancer-stricken Grace. "You volunteer to help people die?" Grace asks. "Is this some kind of Yankee custom?"
Gloria, it's soon learned, has forsaken a high-powered career in New York to join her lawyer husband in the Blue Ridge Mountains -- a retreat less from the big city than from grief over the death of their 12-year-old son five years earlier. Grace, uneducated but not stupid, quickly surmises the truth: Gloria's volunteer work is a way of prolonging the grief that is the last vestige of her beloved son.
But the formula wouldn't be the formula if Grace didn't have something to learn from Gloria in return. Having long since buried all five of her sons, and more recently sold her 500-acre farm for a pittance, the old woman has resigned herself to every hardship that comes along, her sense of fight a casualty of a mean life. Gloria, who encourages Grace to sue the development company that all but stole her land, offers her new friend one last shout at a cruel world.
Despite the downbeat description, "Grace & Glorie" is as much comedy as drama , perhaps more so under Muzio's direction and the casting of Arnaz (her comic timing is more polished than her occasionally overwrought dramatic turns). Much of the humor is of the country mouse/city mouse variety, with Arnaz's Gloria screeching at vermin or baffled by a wood-burning stove, and Parson's Grace favoring Velveeta and Miracle Whip over yuppie brunch foods like lobster salad and prosciutto on pumpernickel.
Whether Arnaz's lack of dramatic subtlety is characteristic of the actress or of the production is unclear, but she certainly has to hang on for dear life when Parsons gets going. A more eccentric actress there isn't (at least since Sandy Dennis passed on), with her facial and vocal contortions at once unsettling and compelling. For those willing to go along for the ride, Parsons is the reason to see "Grace & Glorie."
As the two characters bond over shared secrets and private jokes, they inevitably and predictably learn to trust and respect one another's ways, with the old woman even sitting still for a makeover by her emotionally wounded young friend. The scene, as bluntly symbolic and string-pulling as it is, has a mild sweetness to it that lends a little grace, if not glory, to the stage.
Set, Edward Gianfrancesco; costumes, Robert Mackintosh; lights, Brian Nason; sound, John Gromada; production stage manager, Alan Fox; general manager, Steven M. Levy; associate producer, Ashley/Bernstein. Opened July 16, 1996; reviewed July 13. Running time: 2 hours.
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