January 15, 1999
Review: A dark drive down life's highway
By ARLINE GREER
Sun theater critic
Paula Vogel's "How I Learned to Drive" has arrived at the Hippodrome
carrying big-time credentials. In addition to winning best play awards
from The New York Drama Critics and the Outer Critics Circle, it was named
best play of the decade by "USA Today." And then there's its not-too-shabby
Pulitzer Prize for 1998.
"How I Learned to Drive" is that rarity: a cleverly written, carefully
constructed drama combining wit and character exploration, humor and pathos.
Its story is told within the context of an automobile journey that moves
backward and forward in time, on James Morgan's brilliant set of an abstract
highway. The theme is the sexual abuse of a child (Li'l Bit) by her Uncle
Peck, who starts teaching her to drive when she is 11 years old and just
realizing her own body's development. While Uncle Peck's lessons in driving
emphasize the highest standards of discipline, his lessons in love are
reminiscent of the obsession in Nabokov's "Lolita."
Jennifer Hubbard, Anthony Newfield star as Li'l Bit and
Uncle Peck in the Hippodrome's play about incest and love.
Sun photo by Stephen B. Morton.
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The play is artfully written, and under Lauren Caldwell's direction,
it is artfully played. A Greek chorus of three: Timothy Altmeyer, Nell
Page Sexton and Bonnie Harrison, playing members of Li'l Bit's family,
announce headings in the driver's manual, comment on Li'l Bit's development,
arrange props, deliver songs of the '60s. All are first rate, moving on
stage with the grace of a well-schooled corps de ballet.
The play's structure takes Li'l Bit and Uncle Peck from what appears
to be the present back to 1969, 1965, 1962, all the way to that period
of time when the abuse starts.
In examining the relationship, rather than pointing a finger of blame,
Vogel seems to be seeing resolution. "How I Learned to Drive" is very much
a love story, a story of an unsuitable love, but a real one all the same.
The play's well-defined structure and humorous interjections tend to
give audiences a non-threatening theatrical experience. Vogel distances
the audience from her characters. Her matter-of-fact depictions of sexual
encounters repeated over time make for cold acceptance.
Newfield, the smitten, pathetic, would-be lover emerges as the more
sympathetic character. His desire, his pain, and his hapless obsession
all are portrayed passionately.
IF YOU GO
How I Learned to Drive
WHERE: Hippodrome State Theatre, 25 SE 2nd Pl.
WHEN: 8:15 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7:30
p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 7
TICKETS: $12-$19 Tuesday-Thursday, Sunday and matinees; $14-$25 Friday
and Saturday evenings
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