Was there ever a time? It makes you wonder.
There is nothing new about bigotry. But there is in the way Taproot lays it to rest in the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Last Night of Ballyhoo” by Alfred Uhry. The secret is in the acting.
“Ballyhoo” sets Jews in America against one of their own in Atlanta at a time when Hitler was invading Poland and Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With The Wind,” the film, was making its debut. The Jews are a Southern family of “Standards,” so called because they track their lineage back to west of the Elbe River in Europe, and a “Progressive” from New York, so called because he tracks his back to east of the Elbe.
Amazing, isn’t it; the reasons people dream up to bug each other.
Be that as it may, what gets the ball rolling in this case is “Ballyhoo,” a time of year in Atlanta when the Standards put on their annual formal ball, the purpose being for bachelors and bachelorettes of the right persuasion to mix and match. Everybody who’s anybody goes single and leaves engaged.
Sunny Freitag and Joe Farkas included; and you guessed it, Sunny’s a Standard, Joe’s a Progressive and the family Freitag’s in turmoil. All of which could and does make for run of the mill comedy in less capable hands.
Here, however, the Freitags and Farkas win over one another and anybody else who is paying attention. Humor and some marvelous tech effects help. But subtlety is the key. They sneak up and in but by degrees.
Eli Katz leads the pack as a rather plain, boorish, melodramatic Jewish daughter desperate for a date. Pam Nolte’s not far behind as the match-making Jewish mother that could be but isn’t a cliché. Shellie Shulkin and Nolan Palmer add just the right dash of deadpan humor, never overstated. And Sarah Lamb and Aaron Roos are perfect sweethearts.
Howard Stregack’s in only a couple of scenes but he makes them a real hoot.
Director Scott Nolte, in league with Dramaturg Sonja G. Lowe, have here put together a talented cast in a tantalizing way. If classes at Taproot turn out actors like these, then hopefuls shouldn’t hesitate to sign up.
This is sensible theater, entertainingly packaged, with something to say. Recommended without reservation.
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