This review originally appeared in the MetroWest Daily News on Thursday, May 20, 2004.

Hovey's 'Nightingale' sings

By David Brooks Andrews / News Correspondent

When the lights first come up on the Hovey Players' production of "The Love of the Nightingale," by Timberlake Wertenbaker, you may wonder if it's going to work.
      
Two actors dressed in camouflage step onto a bare stage and trade insults as they fight. When the brief scene comes to an end, a couple of black screens are adjusted for the next scene, which is announced by an actor who stands in front of the audience. All of this has a simplicity that's likely to remind you of the way children might stage a play.
      
And yet there's something utterly engaging about it. It has to do with the power of the story and the disarming way it is told. It has to do with Wertenbaker's simple, concrete, yet amazingly poetic language. And it has to do with the extraordinarily alive performance by Sally Dennis, one of the lead actors.
      
The play is based on a Greek myth, a tragic one, that has been recast in modern language and dress. If Greek tragedies aren't your cup of tea, don't stop reading. Wertenbaker has stripped away the elements that can make Greek tragedies seem so remote and emotionally overdone. Instead, the play feels more like a beautifully written children's story with adult themes about war, betrayal and taking away people's voices.
      
"Nightingale" features two Athenian sisters, Procne and Philomele, who are separated when their father gives Procne to Tereus, the Prince of Thrace, to be his wife.
      
Procne doesn't know what she's getting into and has a very conventional view of life. Philomele is no more knowledgeable but is bursting with feelings, questions and poetic ways of expressing herself. Sally Dennis so vividly captures Philomele's youthful, fiery passion for life that it's clear she understands, even shares, those feelings.
      
"I want to feel everything there is to feel," she says. "Sometimes I feel the whole world beating inside me." She's so alive on the stage, so naturally beautiful, and has such a warm stage presence, that it's hard to take one's eyes off her.
      
When Tereus sails to Athens to fetch Philomele so his wife can have company, the play takes a dark twist. Tereus brings Philomele to within five miles of his home, but he refuses to return for an entire month while his illicit attraction to his sister-in-law festers.
      
Julia Van Daam as Procne picks up dimension and power as her character becomes increasingly concerned and upset. Brian Polak as Tereus seems somewhat flat, though he, too, gains color as the play progresses.
      
The other nine actors play multiple roles. Several of the men act as a chorus and also play soldiers who serve as subtle comic relief.
      
Dorothy Ahle does a good job of creating Niobe, the pragmatic servant to Philomele. Her speech about the way men no longer look at her as she grows older, until she finally disappears, is poignant.
      
Director Luke Dennis clearly has a deep understanding and feel for this play. He wisely keeps it from becoming didactic, which could easily happen in lesser hands. He also knew exactly what he was doing when he cast his own wife as Philomele.
      
This is a kind of a storytelling theater, which comes through in a variety of ways -- with blood symbolized by a red fluttering cloth, with violence silhouetted onto a sheet instead of acted out in full detail and with the use of large rag dolls. But there's also lots of room in the production for actors' real emotions to come through with pure intensity.
      
By the end of the show, it should be clear that the poetic simplicity and honesty of this play is perfect for these difficult times. This is the kind of play that will help to cut through the endless spin-doctoring and confusing efforts to hide the truth which so dominate our culture.
      
"The Love of the Nightingale" runs through May 29 at the Hovey Players' Abbot Theater, 9 Spring Street, Waltham. Tickets cost $15 (for seniors and students $13) and can be reserved by calling 781-893-9171.

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