ORPHEUS DESCENDING
Whether I read them or see them on the stage, his plays tend to degenerate into melodrama. Some day I hope to see a production that will teach me to appreciate Williams. Unfortunately Zebra Crossing’s Orpheus Descending is not that production.
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But then, I can’t imagine a successful production of this play in 1992. Its sordid twists and turns make it something of a down-and-out Falcon Crest. Written in 1957 and set in a small Louisiana town, Orpheus takes place in a tiny store run by Lady Torrance (Lee Roy Roger), an Italian immigrant’s daughter with the firm intent of surviving against all odds. Her father, not so affectionately referred to by the townspeople as “the wop,” sold whiskey to a black man, whereupon he was killed in a fire that burned his estate to the ground. His daughter, now married to the terminally cranky Jabe Torrance (Don Blair), hopes to rise from the ashes of hatred.
Zuccaro has paid attention to the emotional moments in each scene, but more often than not these moments impede the play rather than push it forward. For example, not long after Lady has hired Val, she tells him the story of her father’s death. It’s a painful experience for her to relive and Roger’s performance is affecting, as it is throughout the show, but Val is left out of the picture. We don’t see the story’s effect on him as well as on her, and therefore this information has no discernible dramatic purpose.
