Tonight we saw LADY VICTORY at MSU's Arena Theatre. It's a "world premiere" of an interesting play adapted by Ann Folino White from a book of poems by Jane Vincent Taylor, dedicated to the babies, girls and nuns that lived together at Our Lady of Victory home for unwed mothers in the early 1960's. It was an artistic amalgam of girlish angst and girlish fun, as they rehearsed an in-house version of Oklahoma, cast with all pregnant cowhands, ranchers, etc. Two nuns clashed and intertwined with the girls, the babies and each other. Letters to a lost child read like poetry. Sister B., well played by Carolyn Conover, carried the conflicted heart of the show, loving the babies and the girls, dealing with the conflicts among love and shame and duty and not knowing what happens to a lost child. There were a 16 actresses (and a lone actor playing "boy") so it was a bit confusing sorting them out, and the shrillness of some emotional scenes rendered words difficult to understand. But the sisterhood represented a kind of "victory" and understanding of this difficult situation, at a time when unwed mothers were a social stigma to be hidden and denied.
Lady Victory continues through Feb. 27 - dates and times at http://www.theatre.msu.edu The Arena is in the basement of the Auditorium Building, on the corner of Auditorium and Farm Lane. Buy tickets at the Farm Lane end box office, then go downstairs to the Arena.
Lady Victory continues through Feb. 27 - dates and times at http://www.theatre.msu.edu The Arena is in the basement of the Auditorium Building, on the corner of Auditorium and Farm Lane. Buy tickets at the Farm Lane end box office, then go downstairs to the Arena.
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