Olivia Killingsworth & Quinlan Corbett(Photo: Jacob J. Goldberg)
A family of selfish, greedy, mean-spirited rural New Englanders are the core of Icebound the play by Owen Gould Davis, Jr. that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1923. It is a fine, if not extraordinary play, in which dissension is created among the family awaiting the impending death of the matriarch and dealing the unexpected and unwelcome return of the estranged black sheep.
This play was another leg up for Davis following his 1921 success on Broadway with Detour which was revived two years ago by the Metropolitan Playhouse).
Davis, who was officially done in 1923 with writing the hundreds of pot-boiling melodramas that had brought him great success and prosperity on the touring circuit, paints an almost Eugene O'Neillianesque portrait of swarming rural New England malcontents. High anxiety rules the roost, as the vultures sit around, gripe at each other and pretend to mourn even as they await hearing the contents of the will to be read by family friend and confidante Judge John Bradford (Rob Skolits).
Well-acted and simply staged with the audience (the theater accommodates only fifty-one) seated on three sides of the rather small performing area, Icebound has no difficulty under Alex Roe's direction in securing our immediate involvement with its emotionally charged characters. Written in the days when having twelve characters inhabit a plot was no big deal, director Roe commendably empowers each of the actors to make their own distinctive mark, especially as they are often all seen together.To read the complete review originally posted on 09/27/14 please go to http://curtainup.com/icebound14.html
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