‘Talley’s Folly’ is winning valentine Bar Harbor staging finds right balance

Bar Harbor Theatre is offering theatergoers a July valentine with a production of “Talley’s Folly” that is sweet without turning saccharine, droll without sinking to cynicism and sensitive without being maudlin.

Under the direction of Patricia Riggin, a former member of the theater department at the University of Maine, actors Rebecca Cook and Mitchell Greenburg create a delightful dance. The play, staged in the town hall, is a tribute to love tentatively embraced rather than romance stumbled upon, only to be abandoned.

Lanford Wilson wrote three plays chronicling two generations of the Talley family of Lebanon, Mo., the playwright’s hometown. “Talley’s Folly” is the second in the trilogy and won the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for the two-character drama.

Set in the ramshackle family boathouse toward the end of World War II, the play tells the story of how Matt Friedman, a Jewish accountant, wins the hand of Sally Talley, the feisty old maid of the family. Just under the surface of their love story is a tale of repressed desires and shameful secrets.

As the 97-minute one-act play opens, Matt speaks directly to the audience, describing the encounter about to happen as a waltz. In the hands of director Patricia Riggin, however, ” Talley’s Folly” has the tempo of a rumba rather than the sedate one-two-three, one-two-three meter of the dance Matt describes.

Greenburg is a lanky guy who inhabits Matt like a comfortable shoe. He hides the character’s painful childhood under a cynical sense of humor but comes to court Cook’s Sally with a tentative grasp on his hopeful heart.

The actor hints at Matt’s determined desperation but rarely allows it to bubble to the surface. He peels the character like an onion and with each layer, a bit more of Matt is exposed until he stands emotionally naked before Sally. Greenburg’s earnest suitor is so charming, it’s hard to understand how she can resist him for so long.

Sally’s emotional journey is far more difficult to portray. She keeps saying no to Matt when she desperately longs to say yes and the reasons for Sally’s resistance are rooted in the social politics of the 1930s and ’40s in rural America.

Although her accent’s more Virginia than Missouri, Cook brings to life the woman’s torturous dilemma with grace and charm. The actress embraces Sally’s passion and beautifully portrays the character’s struggle to contain it and reluctantly conform to her family’s vision of her.

Jim Thurston’s set design captures the tumbledown charm of the boathouse and David O’Connor’s lighting design accents the romantic nature of the treasured spot Wilson extracted from his childhood memories. Unfortunately, the auditorium in the Bar Harbor Town Hall, the former high school, nearly destroys the intimacy the piece needs to succeed.

This production of “Talley’s Folly” succeeds because the play is so exquisitely written and because at the BHT it is in the hands of such consummate professionals.

“Talley’s Folly” will be performed at 8 p.m. today and Thursday, July 24 through Monday, July 28. The musical “I Do, I Do” will open Thursday, Aug. 31. For information, call 356-5987.