‘Ballyhoo’ a culture flip
■ ACE presents a
bittersweet portrait of
Jewish life in the South
during the 1930s
By Windy Borman
for the Emerald
The cast performed well in
“The Last Night of Ballyhoo,” the
current performance at Actors
Cabaret of Eugene; first night jit
ters were evident, however.
The Alfred Uhry play, which
opened at ACE on Jan. 21, is set in
1939 Atlanta, on the eve of the
world premiere of “Gone With the
Wind” and with World War II just
over the horizon. Most of the
play’s action occurs in the crowd
ed pastel living room of the Fre
itags, a fifth generation wealthy
Southern Jewish family.
The character Lala Levy sum
marizes the family’s awkward sit
uation by saying “we have no
place in society.” In order to fit in,
particularly in the South, the fami
ly has assimilated and lost touch
with its heritage.
The Freitags don’t speak He
brew — the head of the family,
Adolplj, admits he doesn’t know
more than five Yiddish words —
and they celebrate Christmas more
elaborately than Chanukah.
No matter how hard they try,
they “can’t camouflage being Jew
ish,” one family member says.
The journey of cultural aware
ness and self-discovery in “Last
Night” has been called “bitter
sweet” but would be better illus
trated by a chocolate cake with a
thick layer of rich chocolate icing.
The bitterness comes well into the
second act, but the sweetness of
the first act lingers.
The play opens with Lala deco
rating a Christmas tree in the front
window, bickering with her moth
er about whether a star at the top
is Jewish. The performance ends
with the family gathered around
the dinner table giving the tradi
tional Hebrew blessing.
University student Ben Vaughn
plays Joe Farkas, a Jewish man
from Brooklyn, who is largely re
sponsible for the cultural transfor
mation, which isn’t a smooth one.
His Yankee demeanor, Eastern Eu
ropean Jewish heritage and pride
place him at odds with the popular
“us versus them” mentality. His
honesty and charm easily win over
Adolph and Sunny, Adolph’s
daughter, however.
The most likeable character in
“Last Night” is Adolph, played by
John L. Muellner. Adolph leaves
behind a life of his own to take over
the family business and care for his
Courtesy of Actors Cabaret Eugene
‘The Last Night of Ballyhoo’ deals with family heritage and pride issues.
widowed sister, widowed sister-in
law and their daughters. While he
grumbles a bit, his sarcasm, wit and
teasing keep the family together.
Sunny, played by Deborah
Davidson, is the family’s sensible
one. A college student who tends
to keep her nose in the books, she
quickly puts them aside when she
meets Joe. He opens Sunny’s eyes
to her heritage and by the play’s
end she admits that her cultural ig
norance makes her feel empty.
The two actors have great chem
istry on stage and it is easy to be
lieve they’re in love.
The sugary-sweetness that con
trasts with the cultural bitterness
comes from Reba Freitag, played
by Marla Norton, and Lala, played
by Willow Norton, Marla’s real
life daughter. Lala has an infatua
tion with “Gone With the Wind,”
possibly because she identifies
with Scarlett O’Hara so well.
Lala’s mother, Buella, Margot
Trieger’s role, plays into her daugh
ter’s over-dramatizations. Her hus
band’s death, however, helps Buel
la keep a level head and she asks
Lala to “show some spine” and go
to Ballyhoo — the social event of
the year in Atlanta — with Peachy
Weil, played by Brandon Burkeen.
The actors’ nervousness on
opening night came across in their
dialect work and tempo of speech.
For example, the conversation
in the first scene was hard to fol
low because the women .spoke
rapidly and the Southern dialect
sometimes slipped.
When Joe arrived speaking with
a Brooklyn dialect, he added an
other obstacle. By the next scene,
the actors relaxed and established
a comfortable rhythm, although
the Southern dialect remained a
challenge for some.
Overall, “The Last Night of Bal
lyhoo” is a nice taste of the trials of
self-discovery that everyone faces
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