Powerful ‘Little Foxes’ in Newport

Tom Titus

The Ewings of TV’s “Dallas” could have learned a few things about

greed, mendacity and sheer nastiness from the Hubbards of Lillian

Hellman’s celebrated play “The Little Foxes.”

Beside this clan, J.R. and his family come off like the Beverly

Hillbillies.

Hellman’s drama of unbridled avarice in a Southern family during

the turn of the last century, just 35 years after the end of the

Civil War, currently occupies the stage of the Newport Theater Arts

Center in its first local staging in close to 30 years.

It may be 65 years old and lean somewhat to melodrama, but “The

Little Foxes” is still powerful stuff when performed by actors of the

caliber of the Newport cast.

Director Phyllis Gitlin has delivered a gripping drama steeped in

desperation, with its trio of scheming evildoers appearing all the

nastier when contrasted against a few of the play’s other characters,

four of whom have an extended scene of nostalgic niceness in the

final act.

Even here, however, we view the crushing effect the Hubbards have

had on them, principally in a heartrending, wine-soaked speech from a

browbeaten wife.

In this moment, actress Harriet Whitmyer seizes the hearts of her

audience with a performance of aching torment and regret, one of the

finest pieces of acting you’ll see on a community theater stage.

Whitmyer’s Birdie Hubbard, wed to the cruel but spineless Oscar,

delivers an aching account of bargaining for her security at the

expense of her beloved plantation.

One other performance achieves this level -- Peter Stone’s

Benjamin Hubbard, the J.R. of this contemptuous clan.

Stone dispenses syrupy Southern charm that masks his calculated

malfeasance, assuming command in the family circle simply by his own

strength of purpose in an outstanding interpretation.

Susan E. Taylor in the central role of Regina Giddens, a Hubbard

sister, takes a more low-key approach to her character, cold and

calculating.

Her strategy in this twisted chess match is to wait until the

proper moment to pounce, declaring an unchallengeable checkmate.

The third conspirator -- the ineffectual Oscar, who allows his

piece of the action to be reduced with minimal protest -- is equally

well played by Michael Ross, who stirs his character’s cowardice to

the surface in one shocking moment early in the play.

Standing between the Hubbards and their lucrative cotton

arrangement is Horace Giddens, Regina’s terminally ill husband, who

vows to fight the three siblings to his last breath.

Reed Boyer splendidly enacts the conscience of the family with

intellectual strength sufficing for physical weakness.

Olivia Hayes beautifully portrays Alexandra, the daughter of

Horace and Regina, uncontaminated by her mother’s greed and appalled

by its affect on her father. Sean Engard also impresses as Oscar and

Birdie’s culpable son, Leo, who’s inherited his father’s absence of

principle.

Completing the cast, Karly Pierre glows in the role of a warmly

aware black servant, while Arlon G. Greene enacts her slow-witted

counterpart.

Jules Fleming is solid in his lone scene as a Chicago businessman.

The play is performed against the backdrop of a richly defined

living room setting designed by Eckmann Stage & Technical and dressed

by Larry Watts and Terri Miller Schmidt. Suji Brewer’s period

costumes are outstanding in their detail.

“The Little Foxes” is a certified antique, a play that doesn’t

come long too often.

It contains many emotional levels, all of which are achieved

superbly at the Newport Theater Arts Center.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.