Elden Street Players Tackle Albee's Difficult 'Tall Women'

Courtney Sale, from left, Carla Scopeletis and Karen Havener Handley play women known only as C, A and B, respectively, in Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women" at the Industrial Strength Theatre in Herndon. (By Marty Sullivan For The Washington Post)

The Elden Street Players, never shy about venturing deep into difficult theatrical terrain, cover a lot of ground with their unsentimental, almost bleak character study of a woman's life in "Three Tall Women," Edward Albee's 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. A daring production, it challenges three actresses to make a disjointed, kaleidoscopic view of one life into a universal message through dialogue and minimal physical action, and it challenges audiences to stay with them as they try.

The three women are labeled only as A, B and C. The anonymity suggests universality; there is also a hint that a natural progression is underway. And there is a theatrical strategy at work that assists the play's journey from naturalistic and linear in the first act to sharp and surreal in the second. Director Rosemary Hartman and an exceptional cast soar with the play's strengths and minimize its weaknesses, and despite the lack of a true catharsis, the result is an intellectually absorbing experience.

Albee's play is semi-autobiographical. A, the central character, is drawn from his unhappy childhood with an overbearing (and tall) adoptive mother who disapproved of his homosexuality. Area theater veteran Carla Scopeletis plays A, a 92-year-old wealthy woman who is failing physically and intellectually. Insulated in her sumptuous bedroom, she is attended to by B, a middle-aged woman played by Karen Havener Handley, and she is visited by C, a twenty-something lawyer who is trying to clear up the old woman's finances. She is played by area theater newcomer Courtney Sale.

Scopeletis turns in a performance remarkable not only for its depth of characterization, but also because she expresses so much range within the narrow confines Albee created. There are no histrionics and few dramatic monologues, just bits and pieces of a life full of its share of early hopes, dashed dreams and accommodations to reality and disappointment.

Scopeletis's performance is understated, effectively drawing the audience to her and allowing us to look past the woman's prejudices and imperious, nasty streak. Scopeletis radiates malice with a cold sparkle in her eye and steely grit in her voice, rather than raised volume or grimaces. She expresses childlike hurt with a mouth struggling to set itself, rather than a whine. As A's memories twist and contradict themselves, Scopeletis takes us through the woman's shifting moods like a surgeon carefully probing layers of flesh.

Handley is sympathetic but matter-of-fact as B, doing her best to care for her patient without becoming emotionally involved. C is played by Sale as an unconsciously patronizing and rather cold young woman who briskly takes care of business and fully believes it when she vows that she will never end up like the sick old woman, alone and dependent on others. Sale is elegantly composed, playing against Handley's relaxed warmth and Scopeletis's innate loneliness.

The second act transforms into fantasy. The old woman suffers a stroke, and her consciousness seems to divide into the three stages of her life. As A lies unconscious, C embodies her young, hopeful self, and B represents the commanding presence she was in her prime. Through a nicely executed bit of stagecraft, we also see A as she probably sees herself at 92, mentally sharp and in control.

Accompanied by her estranged gay son, played by Josh Boyle, who makes a silent but meaningful appearance, A moves adroitly through Albee's occasionally dense dialogue, especially in the second act, in which Albee effectively makes his point and then begins to meander around it. Audience patience begins to stretch a bit, but never quite to the breaking point, a tribute to actors filling a tall order.

"Three Tall Women" continues through April 15 at Industrial Strength Theatre, 269 Sunset Park Dr., Herndon. Showtime is 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays. Depending on demand, there may be a performance April 13. For tickets, call 703-481-5930. For information, visithttp://www.eldenstreetplayers.org.