Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C.

Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill

Also see Susan's reviews of Love in Afghanistan and Romeo and Juliet


Anthony Bowden and Christine Lahti
Audiences at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, discovered playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo last season through his incisive look at ambiguous relationships on campus, Really Really. He's back with Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill, which sizzles like the earlier play but focuses instead on the dysfunctions of one family in an upscale suburban neighborhood.

Carly (Christine Lahti) is the dynamo powering her family, unable to take a breath without trying to create a perfect (or at least perfect-looking) life. A woman not born to wealth but determined to fit in, she tosses around terms like "denial" and "reaction formation"—she's taking a psychology course online—as she tries to convince her husband and sons to behave in what she considers appropriate ways.

The playwright lays on the drama in thick strokes. Older son Tommy (Christopher McFarland) doesn't want the high-powered career Carly thinks he should have, younger son Chad (Anthony Bowden) has revealed some things about himself that his mother considers a personal attack on her, and overachieving husband Louie (Wayne Duvall) is almost never home. Toss in alcoholism, eating disorders, and intimations of sexual abuse, and the result is a family pressure cooker that Carly is desperately trying to keep the lid on.

Under Michael Kahn's tightly focused direction in the intimate ARK Theater, Lahti glitters in a performance that ranges from anguish and quiet resignation to unrestrained fury. Whether she's tossing off thoughtless ethnic slurs or trying to persuade her family members to pretend, just this once, to enjoy each other's company, she's magnetic. The other actors have fewer opportunities for individual fireworks, but they all make their marks as lost people trying desperately to make some real connections and find wholeness in themselves.

James Noone's scenic design showcases the careful propriety of this family: inoffensive art on the walls, high-end cooking pans in the kitchen, and neutral colors everywhere. Palmer Hefferan's twinkly sound and composition design evokes the idyllic suburban dream that Carly is destroying herself and everyone around her to present.

Signature Theatre
Pride in the Falls of Autrey Mill
October 15th - December 8th
By Paul Downs Colaizzo
Carly: Christine Lahti
Chad: Anthony Bowden
Tommy: Christopher McFarland
Louie: Wayne Duvall
Directed by Michael Kahn
ARK Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave.
Arlington , VA 22206
Ticket Information: 703-820-9771 or 1-800-955-5566 or www.signature-theatre.org


Photo: Teresa Wood