Come Back, Little Sheba

Review By: Carey Purcell
CareyPurcell@TheCinemaSource.com

Lola is a Chatty Cathy. The central character of William Inge's play Come Back, Little Sheba, this desperate housewife is a compulsive conversationalist. It is rare that she herself is not talking, and if she is not, she seeks distraction, especially from the radio. It is when she is silent that life becomes unbearable for this Lola, brought to the stage in a heartbreaking, gut-wrenching performance by S. Epatha Merkerson. Lola is the driving force of this story, a domestic drama of the 1950s revived on Broadway in a riveting production that is simultaneously compelling and horrifying.

Lola and her husband Doc (Kevin Anderson) live in a small, cluttered house in a small suburban town. Their home isn't much, but it's pretty comfortable. Lola isn't much of a housekeeper, but she does what she can. She's getting older, and she's put on a few pounds. Her main concern is her husband, a recovering alcoholic. Doc has been sober for almost a year, and every chance she gets, Lola encourages him to remain this way. The relationship between the two is anxious and affectionate, with Lola referring to her husband as "Doc" and "Daddy" and he to her as "Baby." Doc is a chiropractor, although he once had ambitions to be an MD, and Lola stays at home while he is at the office.

Despite their seemingly peaceful, domestic household and the fact that they share a bedroom, the two function more as father and daughter than husband and wife, with Doc scolding Lola and Lola responding, wide-eyed and complacent, "I'm sorry, Daddy, I won't do it again." The two did not have a typical courtship, with the doctor waiting a year before even kissing her, and, soon after, sleeping with her. It is revealed through their reminiscing that Doc and Lola had a pregnancy scare and lost the child soon after their wedding.

Without no one to devote her attentions to, and without anyone to focus attention on her, Lola is bored and restless and desperate for companionship. No matter who comes to her door, she embraces them. In one of the more amusing sequences of the first act, she encounters the mailman, the milkman and her neighbor (Brenda Wehle )in sequence, encouraging them to stay for water, coffee or just conversation. Seemingly innocent, she artlessly shares the intimate details of her life and inquires into others, blissfully unaware of the discomfort that she causes those around her. With a remarkably understated performance, Merkerson gives Lola an endearing vulnerability, both comedic and sympathetic .Her loneliness is palpable.

The only one seemingly immune to the discomfort is their boarder, Marie, an art student at the local college. Deftly played by rising star Zoe Kazan, the dewey ambitious Marie appears to be everything people could want in a surrogate daughter. Lola admires Marie, seeing in her everything that she herself is not, delighting in the young girl's many dates and even spying on her ...