By Manning Harris
fmanningh@gmail.com
Aurora Theatre’s Harvel Lab Series (their black box theatre) is currently presenting Joe Calarco’s 90 minute play “Walter Cronkite Is Dead,” directed by Brian Clowdus, running through October 6. Mr. Calarco is perhaps better known in the theatre world for his off-Broadway success “Shakespeare’s R&J,” which is going to be performed at Fabrefaction Theatre Company next February, also directed by Mr. Clowdus.
The late Walter Cronkite was known as a great communicator. The show bearing his name is largely about communication, or its lack; connection, or disconnect. It’s a delicious little two character comedy-drama starring two expert Atlanta actresses: Lane Carlock and LaLa Cochran. Ms. Carlock plays an Easterner (blue state) named Margaret, and Ms. Cochran plays Patty, a red state Southerner. The two women are thrown together in a bar at Reagan National Airport as a huge storm has virtually halted all East coast traffic.
Margaret reluctantly gives Patty what is evidently the last available seat in the airport, and it’s next to her (Margaret). Patty is dressed in casual denim and carries several bags, while Margaret, more stylish and serene, sits next to her. Both women can sense, without a word being spoken, that they are “different” from each other and at first proceed with caution.
You may remember in Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart” that Meg, trying to get her sister Babe to talk about something important, says “You’ve just got to talk to someone about this…because it’s a human need…to talk about our lives…a basic human need.”
Meg was evidently right, and the women start to open up to each other; Patty, more naturally extroverted, goes first, telling tidbits large and small to the rather taciturn Margaret. But soon they’re both chatting away, aided by several glasses of wine. They argue. They sulk.
They can be accusatory: Patty tells Margaret that she’s an East Coast liberal and “looks down on the rest of us…But hate is hate, darlin’; I can smell it on you.”
But they make up. They even dream of taking a vacation together. Perhaps most important, they realize that they have much more in common that either realized. And they begin to really listen; not just to react, but to respond. Patty has her “snobbish” side too: She’s on her way to London to see “The Lion King” because she thinks the British are better actors.
Margaret is waiting for her son to arrive; then she’s off to vacation in Moscow. “Moscow?” Patty is astonished. Of all the lovely European places to visit, why would Margaret pick Moscow? And so it goes.
“Walter Cronkite” has one dramatic disadvantage: There’s almost no movement, or blocking. The women just sit there. This is a big risk in the theatre; in 2007 I saw the great Vanessa Redgrave in Joan Didion’s one-woman play “The Year of Magical Thinking” on Broadway. Ms. Redgrave is a mesmerizing actress with an unearthly talent. But even she could not rescue the play. Not that there weren’t many moving moments; there were! But theatre is an art form that demands movement; it’s just the nature of the beast.
But make no mistake: Ms. Cochran and Ms. Carlock are superb. In the hands of lesser performers, “Cronkite” would fall flat as pancake. But Mr. Clowdus knows all that; and he and his stellar ladies will show you a good time.
For tickets and information, visit auroratheatre.com.
