“Talley’s Folly”

Highly Recommended **** Over the years, I have enjoyed the work of Glenview theater company, Oil Lamp Theatre. For those of you who are not familiar, this is a storefront in downtown Glenview ( Glenview Road just West of Waukegan Road).It is an intimate space that at best holds 60 some people. During the Covid period, they became a little stronger with some outdoor events, including a one person show that they did as a “drive-in” movie. It worked.

Now with the end of the pandemic coming, and theaters feeling the time for live theater has come, this company has found a new and exciting way to work through this. They are doing  a “Season Under the Stars”, and instead of using their small parking lot, they have worked out a program with a local church Saint David’s Episicopal at 2410 West Glenview Road ( at Shermer). In fact, you enter the “theater area” of the church from Shermer, park your car and you will see a setting that is a “sight for sore eyes”- a theater!

FYI- The chairs may be a little too comfy, and are spaced far enough apart to make the CDC smile. There are no concessions, but you can BYO ( I suggest no alcoholic beverages) and unlike the Oil Lamp’s tradition of M & M’s and nuts as well as cookies, we will have to wait until we go back indoors! Meanwhile, a delightful experience under the stars awaits you ( when they do a matinee, you won’t see stars, except the two that are on the stage bringing this 100 minute play  by Lanford Wilson to life.

The story is a love story. There are two characters in the play. At first we meet Matt Friedman ( played to perfection by Gabriel Fries ), a Jewish accountant from St. Louis, who has come to Lebanon Mo to  ask Sally Tally ( a delightful performance by Kristin Doty  ) to marry him. Sally is 31 years old , a nurse’s aid who is helping the soldiers coming back from the war. The time is 1944. Sally is NOT Jewish, but is not like her typical southern Protestant family. At this time of their lives, in this particular part of the world the two of them are like a perfect salad that has dressing that does not work.

As the story goes on, we learn a great deal more about each of the characters and their history. We also watch as the two lives, far from a “match made in heaven” learn enough about the other and as it turns out themselves to let the story go to what we might call a happy ending. I will say no more, so that you can sit back and relax, welcoming “live theater” back to our world.

The chemistry between these two characters is powerful. They are “lost souls” that one would never feel could be a match, but thru the cleverly written store, we see surprise after surprise and in all honesty, the actors are the reason. The play is smoothly directed by Tad Ingram. The set  (Lauren M. Nichols)is unique in design and the entire “under the stars ” thing, effective. The tech crew, working outdoors gets the job done efficiently. Hats off to Will Hughes, Trey Brazeal ( lights)and Kaitlyn Salemi (Stage Manager) as well as prop designer, who also handled the costumes ( Ellen Markus). In the last few years, we have noticed a new technical category, Intimacy coordinator ( or sometimes called choreographer). In this production Claire Yearman handles the intimacy and it says fight, but I was not aware of any true fight to mention. The intimacy worked!

“Tally’s Folly” will continue thru July 18th with performances as follows:

Thursdays  8 p.m.

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Tickets are $45 ($28 for students) and available by calling  847-834-0738 or info@oillamptheater.org

www.oillamptheater.org

Plenty of free parking

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Tally’s Folly”

There is no printed program, only that one can download on their phone ( as we did in restaurants during Covid)