Raleigh (Rollin Prince) and May (Rachel Winfrey Norman) have moved from New York to the gulf coast of Florida so Raleigh could find new inspirations for the books he writes. May is a school teacher.
“Gulf View Drive,” being staged by The WordPlayers at Erin Presbyterian Church, is the third installment in Arlene Hutton’s set of three morality plays, “The Nibroc Trilogy.” The series follow the everyday lives of two Kentucky young people. Now settled in Florida, they are discussing starting their family.
Then May’s mother, Mrs. Gill (Jeni Lamm), moves in because her husband has died and she has no other place to go.
Then Raleigh’s mother, Mrs. Brummett (Dottie Justice-Spilman), arrives because her share-cropper husband died. The owner of the farm the family worked is selling the land.
Then Treva (Jeannine Brown), Raleigh’s sister, who has just found out she is pregnant shows up. Her two children aren’t far behind.
Nothing much else happens in “Gulf View Drive.” But the family’s moral issues are another matter. It’s Hutton’s special gift to turning mundane, ordinary lives into engrossing drama about people whom it seems we’ve always known.
The entire play takes place on set designer Stephen F. Krempasky’s lanai, Florida’s version of a screened-in porch.
Raleigh’s career is successful enough that affording all of these extra mouths to feed isn’t the problem. Finding places for all of them to sleep is. Not to mention finding privacy for themselves.
Prince plays Raleigh as a naturally easy-going guy who wants to please everybody. He doesn’t like conflict. Norman’s May doesn’t either. But she is a little more willing to stand her ground and takes her time conceding any of it. Both are so comfortable as a married couple, the dynamics between the pair is a reassuring pleasure to watch.
Jeni Lamm’s Mrs. Gill is clearly May’s role model. She finds comfort in little things and avoids meddling in her daughter’s life.
Dottie Justice-Spilman’s Mrs. Brummett, on the other hand has to have her nose in everyone’s business and doesn’t mind contributing her two cents to any discussion. Part of her assertiveness, it’s gradually revealed, is because she can’t read. She bluffs her way through every situation to cover it up. But May, in her teacher mode, figures it out.
The moral dilemma of the play comes when Treva announces she wants to give her baby up for adoption, partly because she isn’t sure if the father is her husband, Harold, who is mostly away working, or the product of a fling with a young man of African descent.
Since Raleigh and May want a family, will they adopt the child, solving both Treva’s problem and providing an instant start to their family?
May already crossed the race line when she stood up for the black janitor’s son sitting in the back of her classroom.
Another of Hutton’s gifts as a playwright, as well as the direction by Matthew Lloyd, is getting the audience into the story deep enough that one doesn’t wait at a distance for the characters to decide what they are going to do.
In keeping with the goals of this Christian theatre company’s mission, one quietly pulls for the right decision to be made.
“Gulf View Drive” runs through Oct. 26 at Erin Presbyterian Church, 200 Lockett Road.
Tickets may be purchased at www.wordplayers.org, or at the door. Curtain time is 7:30 p.m.