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Look Homeward, Angel
By Ketti Frings
Based on the novel by Thomas Wolfe
Directed by John Mossman
At The Artistic Home’s Main Stage
3914 N. Clark Street
Chicago, IL
Call 1-866-811-4111 www.theartistichome.org
Tickets $25 on Thursdays & Sundays, $28 on Fridays & Saturdays
Thursdays at 7:30 pm
Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm
Sundays at 3 pm
Running time is 2 hours, 45 minutes with 2 intermissions
Through December 21, 2008
Wonderful American family saga delivers truthful life meoents
Kudos to director John Mossman and the folks at The Artistic Home for finding Ketti Frings’ play, “Look Homeward, Angel,’ her adaptation of Thomas Wolfe’s (1900-1938) biographical work chronicling his bringing up in Asheville, North Carolina. Frings’ sets the play in 1916 (Wolfe’s novel was published in 1929). With a fine three level set (designed by Greg Guyles), “Look Homeward, Angel” is a sprawling work with 18 actors aptly depicting rural small town American life in the Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets or Tennessee Williams mode. Frings’ “Look Homeward, Angel” captures the true heart of Wolfe’s “Angel” in her 1957 play that ran on Broadway for 600 performances garnering 7 Tony nominations and the Pulitzer Prize in 1958. I wonder why no one has produced this gem of a saga in Chicago over the years?
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“Look Homeward, Angel” is the coming of age story of Eugene Gant (Thomas Wolfe’s alter ego) in fictional Altamont, North Carolina in fall of ‘16. Nick Horst, as Eugene, is a real find—he has the boyish charm and youthful zest for life that propels the production. Horst exudes truth and honesty in a disarmingly strong performance. But Kathy Scambiatterra, as mother Elizia Gant, anchors the family drama. Scambiatterra is wonderfully commanding as the strong willed matriarch of the Gant’s. Populated with a rich assortment of family members and boarding house guests, Eugene grows up in a stiflingly provincial small town where most of the residents have given up their dreams as they muddle through life in a basic survival mode.
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Eugene sees his brother Ben (Jeremy Glickstein in a emotionally powerful turn) resigned to being a mediocre newspaper reporter trapped in the small town. He yearns to be fighting in Europe with the Canadians. W. O. Gant (the amazing Frank Nall), Eugene’s father, is a stone cutter who has long ago given up on carving the ultimate stone ‘angel’ statue.
He now drinks and quotes the classics to mute his suffocation. We see an assortment of dispirited souls walking through life with modest goals that motivate Eugene to plot his escape from the controlling grips of the small town and his domineering mother, Eliza. She tries to both make life better for her clan and control them at the same time. She means well but her inability to let go stifles her husband and her children. Growing up in a boarding house full of eccentric travelers, Eugene struggles to discover the world that lies beyond his mother’s house and the grasp of the volatile family. He reads and wonders; he has his first love affair with Laura (Kate Tummelson) and he discovers the pain of love. His spirit is still strong and his determination still focused.
This wonderfully entertaining drama is marvelously performed (especially by Horst, Glickstein, Nall and Scambiatterra)—it is a brawling epic search for connection to each other and one’s self and the world beyond. It dramatizes the struggle for the spirit of the dreamer to fulfill his dreams. Will Eugene escape the trappings of family and rural life? Will he explore the world and write about its wonders? See this outstanding play to find out. You’ll being quietly cheering for Eugene. “Look Homeward, Angel” is an important work that deserves a place in the lexicon of excellent American dramas. The Artistic Home’s production if first class in all respects. A fine night of theatre awaits.
Highly Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: November 13, 2008
Jeff Recommended
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