theater
BY SUZI STEFFEN
JOHN BAUGUESS
Bernie (Chris Pinto), Frank (Bill Campbell)
and Georgie (Leslie Murray)
Optimist, Meet Realist
Odets’ The Country Girl at the Very Little Theatre
A
n alcoholic actor “rescued” by an
idealistic director and the actor’s
wife, a realist with a loyal streak a
mile wide. Does the actor deserve rescuing?
In the Very Little Theatre’s strong
production of Clifford Odets’ The Country
Girl, the reason audience members think
washed-up actor Frank Elgin (Bill Campbell)
should luck into anything good stems directly
from the sympathetic, understated portrait
Campbell paints for his reprehensible
character. Frank’s a likeable guy who just
needs a break, just one more chance. Or so
we think.
Bernie Dodd (Chris Pinto, in another quite
strong performance) gives him that chance,
34 JANUARY 21, 2009
EUGENE WEEKLY
the opportunity to read for a large role in
a new play written by a young playwright
(Tom Wilson). As a kid, Bernie saw Frank
in a couple of plays and has never forgotten
his skills. Now, after years in which Frank’s
decline and fall left a thudding silence in
the theater world, Bernie thinks it’s time for
resurrection.
What effect will that have on his wife?
Leslie Murray plays the titular role, Georgie
Elgin, who gradually emerges in the script
as the central character. Murray’s a good
actor; her work in Rumors, for instance,
was an enjoyable combination of generous
and kooky. But her Georgie doesn’t have the
glimpses of tenderness and sharp wit that the
character needs to convince the audience of
the second act’s plot twist. I’m willing to bet
that most of the VLT’s subscribers have seen
the 1954 Bing Crosby/Grace Kelly/William
Holden movie, but that twist still sent gasps
rippling through the audience.
Odets, licking his wounds back in NY
after hating a stint as a screenwriter in LA,
needed a hit with The Country Girl. He
directed the play when it opened, and he got
his hit (which ironically was made into that
1954 movie). Wilson puts in a fi ne, steady,
touching turn as writer Paul; Leela Gouveia
skewers her ingenue role in Rumors with
a deightful portrayal of Nancy; and Mark
Mullaney’s sweet, harried stage manager
Larry represents an excellent breed. But the
central action revolves around the triangle of
Frank, Georgie and Bernie.
Campbell must deal with more stage
business than any actor should have to. He
doesn’t make a show of it, but approximately
every 10 seconds, Frank seems to be changing
shirts, retying his ties or tying a fresh one
without looking in the mirror, buttoning
cuffs, tucking in shirttails and more. Part of
that stems from the settings; about half of the
play takes place in Frank’s dressing rooms,
one in Boston and one in NY.
Yes, he gets the part. (That happens
early; I’m not spoiling you.) But can he hold
onto it? Can he take the pressure? Will he
start drinking and wreck his own chances?
I’d like to see the play again just to notice
more closely the masterful way Frank — and
Campbell as Frank — deals with Bernie, who
claims to be practical but whose idealism
shows up both as determination with Frank
and bitterness toward his ex-wife.
Bernie’s hostility and fury at women in
general emerge in a key scene early in the
second act, as Frank’s acting starts to fall
apart on and offstage, while Georgie spends
her time in his dressing room, trying to pick
up after him and keep him sober. Murray
needs to match her pacing to Pinto’s in
that scene. Georgie’s frustration, her long
years of devotion to someone who doesn’t
deserve her, her desire for some kind of life
of her own, should make her the character
with whom the audience most identifi es.
She’s diffi cult, prickly, brilliant, completely
underutilized in life, and Murray needs
to make Georgie ever so slightly more
sympathetic, especially because Campbell’s
Frank earns audience affection early in the
play.
The Country Girl, along with its focus
on theater, has a proto-femenist bent. Who’s
Georgie when she’s not with Frank? Will
she ever fi nd out? She asks the universe for
a room of her own but seems locked in a
struggle not only against herself (and Frank)
but against a world that expects her to “be a
home” to some man or other. Odets leaves her
future open, uncertain, even as Frank fi nds
temporary redemption and Bernie temporary
success. What will happen to Georgie?
Figure out what you think sometime in the
ew
next two weekends at the VLT.
The Country Girl runs through Jan. 30. Tix at
541-344-7751. Read an interview with director Chris
McVay, which goes into much more detail about J Thi-
beau’s remarkable set, Bill Campbell’s essential kindness,
Frank’s cruelty and more, on EW! A Blog.
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