Theater Review of Dividing the Estate
3.5 out of 4 Stars
No one would suspect 92-year-old Horton Foote, a gentle playwright whose 60 tenderhearted plays include “A Young Man from Atlanta” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” of writing a vigorous piece of political theater.
But in addition to its hearty laughs, “Dividing the Estate” is in fact a brilliant dissection of greedy family politics and the out-of-control economics that have caused our country’s current recession.
“Diving the Estate” takes place in Harrison, TX, the setting of nearly all Foote’s plays. Here, it is home to the Gordon family’s 5,000-acre mansion and farm, once a prized home of southern gentility and gossip. But it’s now 1987. Most of the town’s wealth lies in a plastic factory owned by the Vietnamese and fast food malls.
All that’s holding the fort together is the family’s 85-year-old, sprightly matriarch, who stubbornly refuses to divide the estate among her three middle-aged children, none of which have ever held down real jobs. Clearly, she does not want to fall into the same traps as King Lear.
Eventually, her children’s dreams manage to both come true and fall apart. After decades of borrowing money from the estate, there appears to be no more money left on the cookie jar. They’re on the brink of poverty. Even worse, the kids might even need to get jobs! A way of life has ended.
Husky-voiced Elizabeth Ashley is stunning as she physically transforms herself into a female version of Big Daddy from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Hallie Foote, the playwright’s daughter, portrays Mary Jo, the family’s youngest daughter, in a mercilessly self-centered manner. She has even trained her two young daughters, dressed in gaudy 80s fashion, to be as greedy and lazy as her.
Michael Wilson’s production well-cast production displays pitch-perfect comic timing and nuanced characterization. Though it lacks the thriller quality of “August: Osage County,” “Diving the Estate” is another new family drama that is more than worthy of its spot on the Great White Way.
Booth Theatre, 222 West 45th St, 212-239-6200, $71-96. Tues 8pm, Wed 2 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 3pm. Thru Jan 4.
