WE DID THE MARATHON IN RECORD TIME

We are having just as much difficulty condensing yesterday’s nine hours of Horton Foote’s Marathon opus “The Orphans’ Home Cycle” into a single two paragraph blog as Foote must have had condensing his original work, consisting of nine plays, into the three we saw at the Peter Norton Space.

From the minute we walked out of the Norman Conquests marathon last season, our theater appetites were whetted for another three-plays-in-one-day-adventure. We were thrilled when we scored Seats A106 and 107 for yesterday’s Marathon, we could literally see every character breathe. The Peter Norton space is actually very intimate and surprisingly comfortable, which was critically important since we were in the same seats for nine hours.

We knew immediately that every other person there was like us, a hard core NY theatergoer. We ran into dear friend Nancy Ploeger and her friend Nancy, also avid theatre goers, whose presence evidenced our thoughts and comments about who was in the audience. The only downside to this theatre is the lack of good restaurants very close by and the bitter cold wind yesterday made walking to find the oerfect mealtough. But who really cares about eating when we were being fed such great theater.

How can we explain that while nothing really happens in terms of action during the nine hours we spent in our seats yesterday, everything happened. We were hooked from the very beginning and our attention never wavered. The story and characters so engaged us that we just hated to leave. By the time the taxi brought us home we were missing Horace and Elizabeth, not to mention Mrs. Vaughn and her son Brother and we were already wondering how they were doing.

The sets and costumes were really perfect depictions of Texas in the early 1900’s. Michael Wilson’s direction was sublime….there were moments when it was hard to decide who made the decisions on physicality – the actors or the director. It didn’t matter since they worked beautifully. We were mesmerized by James DeMarse’s portrayals of two characters, Soll Gautier, the plantation owner and Henry Vaughan, Horace’s father-in-law. His energy and compassion and total understanding of the roles made all the difference in the world. The same must be said about Bill Heck’s portrayal of Horace and Maggie Lacey’s vision of his wife Elizabeth.

It was quite interesting to keep up with actors who played different roles in the three different plays, sometimes switching roles in different acts of the same play. The only actor who principally played only one role was Heck, who brought the adult Horace to life throughout the trilogy.

And if only the playwright could have lived to see his daughter Hallie bring this magnificent work to life. She grabbed us from the moment she stepped onto the stage and never let us go, just as the entire day did. In case you think we have lost all objectivity we do have to mention that we are not really sure how each of the individual plays is viewed on its own. It is nearly impossible to have a sense of that after having seen them consecutively, in the correct order, in one day.

Kudos to an incredible cast with amazing fortitude! It was a pleasure to see their hard word recognized with a well earned robust standing ovation at the end of the day, from real New Yorkers who appreciate truly good theatre.

We would give anything to know the rest of the story. Hallie – you must know it. Be an angel and shoot us an email at houseseats@yahoo.com and fill us in.