For those in search of something they certainly have not seen before, Will Mr. Merriwether Return from Memphis? runs this weekend as part of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. It’s at the Stockton House, the venue for last year’s very successful The St. Louis Rooming House Plays. Mr. Merriwether hasn’t been done anywhere in the last fifty years, so the odds are good it’s new to all of us.
Like so much of Williams, it’s about yearning and that thin line between reality and beyond. Julie Layton is Louise, in whose house we are. She’s a young widow with an adolescent daughter, Gloria, played by Molly McCaskill. Not only is Louise dealing with an adolescent in hormonal storm, she’s storming some on her own, over her former boarder, a traveling salesman named Merriwether who accepted a job in Memphis. Louise is tense, chronically mildly agitated, and, we eventually realize, barely functioning.
Their neighbor Nora is Kelley Weber, an older widow. She and Louise have gotten in the habit of summoning apparitions of an evening, as they would doubtless term it, and Kelly fusses over Louise as much as allowed, which is very little. Gloria sashays off nightly to the public library to work on her English theme and be followed by a pack of admirers.
This all doesn’t sound like much, but details like one of the apparitions turning out to be Rimbaud, the poet – not that the ladies recognize his name – and Gloria’s scenes in both the library and the schoolroom, where one of her admirers, a young man with a stutter, Jacob Flekier, helps her out, perk things up. And some of the dialogue is wickedly funny.
The three actresses are all remarkably good, and the evening is deeply strengthened by the supporting players. Terry Meddows, Sophia Brown and Bob Harvey do yeoman work, although in this case, it should be yeoperson work, as there is a great deal of cross-gender activity going on. Harvey’s librarian could pass for Van Gogh’s l’Arlesienne. Meddows’ Mrs. Eldridge on her way to a club is a crowd-stunner. The French influences here come to a head with Sophia Brown’s French instructor, and all three join forces as crones, lacking only a specific discussion of eye of newt to tidy things up. Don’t bother keeping track of exactly who does what until the show is over, just go with the current.
Jef Awada directed the production and keeps us on the first floor of the house, moving us from room to room but avoiding those climbs up and down staircases that marked last year’s work. Robin McGee’s costumes are deliciously done, and James Robey choreographed the considerable dance work done by the young ones. The young, unnamed banjo player adds yet another bit of pleasure.
There is little seating, and a great deal of shifting about, part of the fun but something to be kept in mind.
Not one of Williams’ greatest works, but a fine example of making the most of what one has. The run on this goes beyond the Festival itself.
Will Mr. Merriwether Return from Memphis?
Through May 21
Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis
Stockton House
3508 Samuel Shepard Drive