The 10th annual Festival of Independent Theaters (FIT) opened a four-week run at the Bath House Cultural Center on White Rock Lake on July 17. One Thirty Productions, new to FIT this year, presents two early Tennessee Williams one-acts: The Lady of Larkspur Lotion and Hello From Bertha. The former is set in the bedroom of a squalid rooming house in New Orleans' French Quarter. The boarder, Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore (Marty Van Kleek) channels Blanche duBois as she complains to her landlady, Mrs. Wire (Mary Lang) about the proliferation of flying cockroaches in her room: "They're not even the pedestrian kind."
She can't pay her rent because she hasn't received her payment from the man who runs her Brazilian rubber plantation. Enter a young writer who also rooms there (Vikas Adams) to rescue her from the landlady's angry tirades. As the play ends, the writer introduces himself as Anton Chekhov, and delusion reigns supreme.
Hello From Bertha is set in an equally squalid brothel in East St. Louis where Bertha (Mary Lang), a shop-worn alcoholic prostitute, has not earned her keep in two weeks and has taken to her bed. The proprietress, Goldie (Van Kleek) is threatening to call an ambulance and have her carted off to a hospital ward (a euphemism for the loony bin). Bertha is paranoid and delusional and insisting someone stole her $5 / $25 / $10 from under a tray on her dresser. In reality, she has spent the money on gin. She speaks of an old boyfriend she worked for at his hardware store in Memphis who once told her to let him know if she ever needed help. As the play ends, she is dictating a letter to a fellow resident, Lena (Natalie Young) to mail to him.
The characters in both plays are interchangeable and depict the dregs of humanity. Van Kleek is properly delusional as Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore and confidently strident at Goldie. Lang is spot-on in both shows and should be seen more often on Dallas stages.
