THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE
Strawdog Theatre Company
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The Voice of the Turtle is a simple enough story: an actress resists falling in love with a soldier on leave. Sally Middleton (Lia Mortensen) and Bill Page (Si Osborne) are brought together when Olive Lashbrooke (Mary Ernster), Sally’s best friend and Bill’s original date, gets a better offer for the evening and leaves Sally to take care of Bill. Over a weekend a romance blooms between them as they discuss the failed affairs of their past and discover each other’s vulnerabilities.
The power of van Druten’s play is fully captured in Classic American Theatre’s nearly flawless production, seamlessly directed by Suzanne Petri. Despite a rather shaky opening ten minutes, complete with rushed lines and slightly garbled diction (it took me quite a while to figure out that the music playing was the “Londonderry Air” and not the “London Derriere”), the production soon got on track with three very solid performances.
Set in the hotel suite of prima donna Irene Livingston (Isabel Liss), the play takes place on opening night of a show written by first-timer Peter Sloan (Harvey Fries). We watch as a menagerie of familiar comic characters embrace the young, wide-eyed playwright before the show opens, savagely reject him when they think the play is a flop, and embrace him again when the reviews are published.
