Enough Rope

Dorothy Parker & Friends: One Perfect Rose seems like a good idea, but Parker's booze-fueld boldness is in short supply.

by Mark Cofta

A theatrical tribute to poet, short-story writer and critic Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) seems like a great, long-overdue idea, but Hedgerow Theatre's latest production is woefully underdone.

Director David O'Connor, Hedgerow leader Penelope Reed and their plucky ensemble adapt seven stories and a poem for Dorothy Parker & Friends: One Perfect Rose, but offer little about Parker's life and personality. Their title implies exploration of her participation in the famous "Algonquin Round Table" (the & Friends could include George S. Kaufman, James Thurber and Alexander Woollcott), but they're never mentioned, and the irony of "One Perfect Rose" is overshadowed by un-Parkerish sentimentality.

If one knows nothing about Parker (and if so, shame on you!), this collection — stretched to 80 minutes with pedestrian recitations of period songs — is not only incomplete, it's misleading.

Not that the stories included are unworthy. "The Garter," split into three parts, allowing Susan Wefel to address us directly as Parker musing about a slipping stocking's ruinous social consequences. Other tales unfold in a variety of styles: Wefel narrates "The Waltz," a woman's inner thoughts while dancing, and plays the central character in the cleverly staged "From the Diary of a New York Lady." Some become stand-alone plays: Sarah Gafgen and Kevin Meehan are nervous newlyweds in "Here We Are," and Gafgen shines as a bigoted socialite meeting a black celebrity played by Newton Buchanon in "Arrangements in Black and White." Characters narrate their action in "Big Blonde," featuring Caryln Miller, and "Such a Pretty Little Picture." They're all well-staged, sincerely acted portraits of women (and some men) trapped by conventional circumstances.

We learn that Parker opposed social stuffiness, championed women's rights and was an outspoken civil rights supporter before the movement gained steam in the 1950s. (She put her money where her mouth was, leaving her estate to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the NAACP.)

In short supply, however, is the booze-fueled boldness that makes Parker one of the 20th century's most quoted commentators. Where are the saucy lines like "One more drink and I'll be under the host" or (speaking of Yale's prom) "if all the girls attending it were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised"? Like Parker's famous quip about a Katherine Hepburn performance, this tribute "runs the gamut of emotions from A to B."

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Dorothy Parker & Friends: One Perfect Rose Through Jan. 27, Hedgerow Theatre, 64 Rose Valley Road, Media, 610-565-4211, hedgerowtheatre.org.