‘Quilters’ production weaves engaging taleStageloft saga gives insight into the past By Paul Kolas Telegram & Gazette Reviewer STURBRIDGE— Stageloft Repertory Theater’s “Quilters” deftly weaves storytelling with music in a uniquely involving way, much like its metaphorical title. It’s the saga of a mother and her six daughters taking a westward journey in the 1870s, and how their zeal for quilting serves as a lifelong bookmark for the passage of their lives. And what lives they live, and what stories they have to tell, ranging from the ravages of fatally inclement weather to the rigors of childbirth to the hopes of finding the right husband. There is an agreeable sense of repetition, routine and inevitability here that feels like each season passing inexorably into the next. Edward Cornely’s direction is fluidly paced, and his set design is a handsome, autumnal looking backdrop of a prairie landscape. The only member of the cast that is accorded a name in the playbill is the mother, Sarah, played with comforting warmth by the director’s wife, Ellen Cornely. She has an attitude of total acceptance of what life brings her and her daughters, whether it be good or bad. We do hear names mentioned now and then, Mable Louise, Harriet, Lizzy and Molly, among others, but the creators of “Quilters,” Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek, are more interested in creating a homogeneous family mosaic that parallels the 16 pieces of quilting patterns, displayed like visual chapter headings prior to each unfolding story. Yet, Crystal Delvecchio, Bethany Fournier, Kim Napeleone, Jill Bailey, Sally-Anne Dunn, and Robbin Joyce are a collective study in contrast within this framework, and each actress is called upon not just to portray a daughter but often assume a multitude of other identities in their individual storytelling.
As ensemble a piece as “Quilters” may be, everyone is given several opportunities to shine. Kim Napeleone’s “Butterfly” song is one of the most poignantly sung songs. Bethany Fournier and Ellen Cornely have a delightful scene together when Sarah (Cornely) is teaching her eager daughter Harriet (Fournier) how to quilt, the flush of anticipation lighting up Fournier’s face like Christmas morning. Of course, there is travail and heartbreak along this lifelong story path. Among the more serious moments is Jill Bailey’s character of Mabel Louise wanting an abortion after having produced a double digit family, like most of her sisters. She’s afraid of things going badly with her latest pregnancy and that if she dies, her husband will be left to ensure that her family will survive. It’s a harrowing moment that Bailey acts with perfect emotional pitch. She and her sisters talk about all the children they have had, those they miscarried, and those passing away only days after birth. Molly (Robbin Joyce) is incapable of having children and never marries. She recalls for us the one man she fell in love with, a doctor who tells her he doesn’t care about having children, then changes his mind and marries an old friend who can provide him with them. Joyce emotes her memories with a shoulder shrugging sense of resignation that is truly elegiac. Every one of these women is like a thread in the fabric of life,
and their varied stories, touching and amusing by turns, create a
human tapestry, much like the lovely quilt unveiled at the conclusion
of this singularly original work. |