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Candles to the Sun
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Steven Fedoruk
Produced by Eclipse Theatre Company
At Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater
2257 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL
Call 773-871-3000, tickets $20 - $25
Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 40 minutes with intermission
Through May 4, 2008
Tennessee Williams’ first full-length play a glimpse into a genius
Candles to the Sun, a 1936 play by Thomas Lanier Williams (1911-83) (years before he was know as “Tennessee,” is referred to as one Williams’ apprentice plays. Candles to the Sun was first produced by a community theatre troupe in 1937 in St. Louis. Kudos to Eclipse Theatre Company for resurrecting the initial work of a true genius playwright. Candles to the Sun is an ambitious first work containing a hint to the fabulous plays to come from Williams. His well developed characters and his poetic use of language as well as the inherent sadness of his heroines are present in this marvelous play and became staples of his future plays.
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Set in the 1930 during the Great Depression in Alabama’s Red Hills coal mining region, Candles in the Sun tells the story of the Pilcher family—a poor white trash miner family. We meet the illiterate Bram Pilcher (Chuck Spencer), the head of the family and a coal miner for several decades. He is proud to be a minor despite being underpaid and subject to miner’s lung sickness. Hester Pilcher (CeCe Klinger), the family matriarch is determined to get her sons educated to keep them from being trapped into becoming coal miners. Her oldest son John left the red hills of Alabama for Pennsylvania to find a better life. He marries and is forced to become a coal miner in Pennsylvania to support his wife and son, Luke.
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When Fern Pilcher (Julie Daley) shows up from Pennsylvania after John’s death from a mine accident with her son, Luke (JP Pierson), Hester at first blames Fern for John’s death but soon welcomes the new arrivals into the clan. Star Pilcher (Rebecca Prescott) had just been thrown out of the house by Bram for staying out all night with a man. Fren and Luke move into Star’s room.
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Over ten scenes, Candles in the Sun unfolds the story of the bleak, unhopeful lives of the coal miners trapped as working poor. Over the next few years, Luke becomes an avid reader and Joel Pilcher (Ross Travis) follows his father into the mines. Star now lives with union organizer Birmingham Red (Sorin Brouwers) in the company camp. Working conditions and miner’s pay got cut as the Depression deepens. Red and the men move toward a strike. Bram Pilcher, fearful of change and losing his lifelong job is against a strike. When there is a mine cave-in on the day Luke decides to work in the mines, the miners go on strike. Birmingham Red, with Luke’s help, struggles to keep the miners alive throughout the strike.
Tennessee Williams’ story is rich in fully rounded characters from the ignorant miner, to the hopeful mother, to the sexy, dreamer and independent, Star, to the dedicated union organizer. We quickly like there folks. Williams give them many terrific, almost poetic speeches including several lovely odes to the red hills that these folks loved. The struggle of common folk to survive as they dream of the good life is excellently portrayed in this drama. Eclipse uses live bluegrass and Baptist hymns sung deftly by the ensemble to set the tone and underscore the bleakness of life in the hills. Williams is influenced by the flight of these poor souls as he pushes for social justice. Kevin Hagan’s raw wooden set hints at the claustrophobic world of small cottages and the mines.
Chuck Spencer, CeCe Klinger, Sorin Brouwers, Rebecca Prescott and Julie Daley gave particularly fine performances. Tennessee Williams would be quite proud of this production. Come see this rarely produced work from an icon of the American Theatre: Tennessee Williams
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: March 30, 2008
Jeff Recommended
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