Wacky "Sugar Bean Sisters" opens in Sierra Madre
Jackie Houchin
October 12, 2008
Complete with wraith-like creatures, a spooky "reptile woman," visiting UFOs, and a haunted outhouse, the play is bound to "creep out" audiences while killing them with laughter.
Somewhere, back in the swamps and cane fields of Florida ("where terrible things happen"), a dilapidated wooden shack houses two very dissimilar spinster sisters.
The diminutive Willie May Nettles (played wonderfully by little person, Marcia deRousse) is hoarding a "grapefruit fortune" (actually a settlement for an industrial accident, which perhaps also accounts for her baldness and need for a variety of wigs).
She dreams of marrying a Mormon man so she can ascend to the "Celestial Kingdom" one day. Meanwhile, she is terrified of being alone, and needs her sister to check under the bed each night for any "raw eyes and bloody bones."
Strong and able, Faye Nettles (played convincingly by Pattie Tierce) gets exasperated with her sister and often runs outside to a place "for me to know and you to guess."
She´s garnered some notoriety for having witnessed a UFO landing twenty years earlier. Now she earnestly awaits their return and is packed and ready to go with them.
The sharp, lightning quick verbal sparring between these two is exciting, but can be hard to understand until the ear gets used to their heavy, back-woodsy, Southern accents.
Outside, near the outhouse, a cemetery plot marks Ma Nettles´ grave (killed by a viper coiled up inside her toilet bowl because "she didn´t look before sitting down").
Another is for Pa Nettles, who was hanged for killing fifteen young girls in The Sugar Bean Beauty Queen Pageant, using rat poison in the cane syrup atop their cake.
A third marker identifies the remains of sister Robinella, who was "gnawed apart by a ´gater."
Unexpectedly, a strange bird of a woman, Videllia Sparks (played with zest by Karen Kahler) arrives with a small suitcase, stories about a disappearing stranger and a Voodoo woman, and … possibly a con game.
After Willie May goes off with Bishop Crumbly (Nathan Cambridge) to comfort the family of yet another snakebite casualty, Faye makes a startling discovery about Videllia.
What follows in Act II includes a shocking confession, an appearance by a psychic snake handler (Terry Savior), the hatching and snatching of a diabolical murder plot, a variety of "heavenly" visitors, and the very appropriate "just desserts" for each of the sisters.
Writer Nathan Sanders´ wacky play was skillfully directed (and enhanced) by Kirk White, who added the two wraith-like characters (played by Leslie Ezeh & Laci Greenfield-Soso) who perform "Foley" sound effects, carry out crew duties, and add to the general creepiness of the story.
Designer David Calhoun again produced a wonderfully complex set.
For an "unusual" evening of entertainment (with some surprisingly tender moments), see what one person exiting the playhouse claimed was… "the weirdest play I've ever seen!"
"The Sugar Bean Sisters" plays Friday & Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:30 pm through November 15.
Tickets are $20, with seniors (65+) and students (13-17) at $17, and children at $12. For reservations call (626) 256-3809 or visit www.sierramadreplayhouse.org
Sierra Madre Playhouse is located at 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre, 91024. There is abundant free parking behind the theatre.