It’s a late ’70s rural summer Texas kind of feel. The lights fade-out and when they fade-in again, there’s Libby Amato looking off into the distance in an unspoken Texas accent. She’s playing Elizabeth and Elizabeth is waiting around for a 1959 Pink Thunderbird. It’s In Tandem Theatre’s production of the James McClure comic drama named after that vehicle. The stage is made out to be her porch. She isn’t waiting for Hattie, but Hattie shows up anyway. And since she’s a friend, she’s welcome. And since she’s played by Lindsay L. Gagliano she’s a lot of fun to hang out with even if you’re in the audience. And since it’s just Gagliano and Amato for much of the first half of the play, it’s a really fun opening to an enjoyable show.
I love the overall composition of 1959 Pink Thunderbird. Before intermission, you’re hanging out with three women in a scene directed by Jane Flieller. After intermission, you’re hanging out with their three husbands in a scene directed by Chris Flieller. It’s a remarkably concise, little world the plays on a remarkably concise, little stage.
Three women. Then three men. We see things from a number of different perspectives. in a couple of different scenes. McClure has woven quite a bit of complexity into the story. There’s a complex interplay between drama and comedy. As good as the script is, the biggest appeal of this production to me was the social time travel angle. We’re visiting six people who never existed some three and a half decades ago. A couple of women fold laundry while watching Let’s Make A Deal. A couple of guys talk about Viet Nam over a few beers. In a space as intimate as the Tenth Street Theatre, this has a very casual feel about it that we know is very earth-shattering for the characters in various ways.
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The ensemble is really good. Lindsay L. Gagliano and Libby Amato have shown-up in quite a lot in recent years. It’s nice to see the two of them together as a good portion of the first half of the program. Amato shows charming resilience given where her character is emotionally. Gagliano is pleasantly animated in the role of a very dynamic woman brimming with Texas charm. There's a feisty darkness in her character that balances out the wistfulness of Amato as Elizabeth.
Gagliano and Amato are joined by Mary C. McLellan in the role of Amy Lee--a woman who also lives in the tiny Texas town they inhabit. McLellan is very sharp as someone with a great deal of gossip-driven interest in others. When she arrives, a pleasant afternoon turns sour in a delicately-realized drama.
The show returns from intermission with Matt Koester playing the husband of Amato’s character. He’s one of those who has returned from war not quite able to pick-up where he left off. He had once been one of the wildest things in the small town he grew-up in. Now he’s lost. He’s having an evening’s conversation with his little brother (and the husband of Hattie)--played here by Rob Maass. It’s an interesting role for Maass, who excels at more dominant roles than this one. Here he’s playing a man who willingly accepts second place to his alpha brother. He’s a bit slow, but it’s not for a lack of deeper wisdom beyond what appears to be a surface-level dim-wittedness. The choice of Maass for this role is a smart one--he layers subtle shades of characterization into the younger brother’s lack of sophistication. It’s fascinating to watch. Koester plays a man grasping at his dominance without really being certain that he even wants it.
Maas and Koester are soon joined by Matt Zembrowski in the role of Amy Lee’s husband. The character is written to be kind of a weak-willed guy, but Zembrowski carries with him a very relaxed, level-headed stage presence. Rather than working against the character, it serves to give him a depth that works well with the rest of what’s going on in the second half of a very, very fun trip back to the late ‘70s to hang out with a few people who never actually existed.
In Tandem Theatre’s production of 1959 Pink Thunderbird runs through May 18th at the Tenth Street Theatre on 628 North 10th Street. For ticket reservations, call 414-271-1371 or visit In Tandem online.
