The Autumn Garden
By: Lillian Hellman / Narrated By: Eric Stoltz, Scott Wolf, Mary Steenburgen, Julie Harris, Roxanne Hart, David Clennon, Glenne Headly
Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins
Good… but exasperating… and kinda sorta depressing… can I shoot m’self now…?
First off, this audiobook production of the 1951 play by Lillian Hellman neeeeeds a PDF or SOMEthing whereby we know which actor is whom. I was kiiiiinda guessing, but I’m fairly certain I got only Mary Steenburgen right as Nina, wife of the ridiculously unctuous and drunken Nick Denery. I haaate being all out to sea, and I haaate not being able to send kudos out where kudos are due.
Cuz, brother/sister, the actor who played Nick did it so very well that I was gagging and wanting to throttle him.
It’s like this, see…
Our play opens up, all genteel-like, at a kinda sorta Bed n’ Breakfast, run by Constance Tuckerman. The saucy and snipe-y Mrs. Mary Ellis is listening to the somewhat vapid Rose Griggs as she rattles off non sequiturs and parses phrases without saying whom she’s referring to. It’s kinda chucklesome, and at first glance, one would think that this shall be a charming play about charming people; however vapid SOME characters, there shall be others who are sharper ‘n tacks and willing to chuck out the occasional bon mot.
A party is to be headed out to, and a couple are to be arriving, things are rolling merrily along.
-BUT- We begin to see that things are not all chipper and glib. Young Sophie Tuckerman (Adopted at 13 by Constance to get her outta war torn France) is to marry Frederick Ellis, and ‘twould appear that theirs is not to be a love match; rather, Sophie is kinda doing it just to get away from her humdrum existence. Also? Vapid Rose is all ruffled cuz her husband, General Benjamin Griggs is hellbent on divorcing her ASAP.
Snide quips, fraught discussions, and who should arrive but the gregarious Nicholas (Nick) Denery and his long-suffering (And slightly shrewish) wife, Nina. Things go along with chipper conversations, but needling starts making it into how they’re speaking, and gosh I wanted to strangle Nick.
Alcohol flows, more talk of divorce and pleading, a marriage soon to happen, travels curtailed when a young man discovers that he has friends only when he’s willing to throw money around. Wailing! Shouting! Pleading! And Nick gets sooo loaded after tormenting people that he staggers over and starts verbally assaulting Sophie. He drunkenly makes a loathsome pass at her then drops down in a dead-drunk stupor where Sophie has made her bed.
This is 1949, the neighbors can see in through the windows, and Nick in unmarried Sophie’s bed?! GASP!!! She’s ruined!!!
More wailing! More shouting! And more pleading when Rose plays her trump card and begs for another year of marriage from the General!
This is a fairly well-written play; it’s just that I found sooo many of the characters really truly fairly despicable. Mary Steenburgen is a standout, as is Mrs. Ellis, and Frederick was just a plain old sad sack that made m’ fingers twitchy, wanting to throttle yet ANOther character. Rose was shrilly done, so brava right there. Genteel accents all around, and seriously? Great play, but really rather sad, and I couldn’t help but feel, the way the characters interacted, that Ms. Hellman derived a great deal of inspiration from Anton Chekhov.
Not a bad way to spend just over 2 hours, and I do indeed like stories where things on the surface hide despicable underpinnings. It’s just that the Southern accents started to annoy me. This is kinda wrong of me as I’m the not-so-proud owner of a Texas twang and people treat me as tho’ I’m rather stupid when they hear the Y’alls start coming out. I should know better, but these particular Southern drawls really do belong to idiots.
Glad I listened to it; couldn’t figure out where Autumn came from, but you can danged well be sure that I WILL use this for an Autumn Listen!
I’m kinda shameless that way, but dude! I listened to the entire thing, so ‘tis my right to exploit the title in such a pathetic way… Happy Autumn… y’all…!
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