Theater Review - Pearl Jam

In Horizon Theatre’s String of Pearls, the necklace of the title becomes a ball and chain for playwright Michele Lowe. String of Pearls traces a piece of jewelry as it passes through the hands of disparate women, separated by social class and geography, over a span of 35 years. Though Lowe reveals herself to be a witty and ambitious writer, the play’s unifying gimmick becomes a hindrance, and makes Horizon’s production feel like a handful of Lifetime Channel movies strung together.

String of Pearls’ 10 or so plotlines include a cancer story, at least two stories involving elderly, difficult mothers and a career vs. family conflict concerning two sisters, one a calculating political consultant (Monica L. Williamson), the other a swamped mom (Sally J. Robertson). To keep the pearls passing from woman to woman, Lowe relies heavily on coincidence - an investment banker even finds the necklace in the belly of a fish.

The show’s four actresses play 27 roles and, while not very memorable collectively, they all shine in individual moments. Ann Wilson plays a slightly doddering grandmother who flashes back to how she received the necklace at age 39 after becoming a self-conscious participant in the sexual revolution of 1969. Wilson brings appealing humor to the episode’s bracingly frank discussion of bedroom relations, and later finds the poignancy in a wealthy housewife who passes for poor to befriend a group of underprivileged mothers.

String of Pearls emphasizes the middle-class concerns of women at mid-life, but at times encompasses more complex material. Donna Biscoe sensitively portrays a Tunisian hotel maid in California who finds a new perspective on her near-slave status as an immigrant worker. Lowe concludes the play with an amusingly unlikely romance between a septuagenarian and a 300-pound gravedigger - both of whom are women.

Yet a tale of a ballet chaperone (Robertson) dealing with French anti-Semitism is too big for the space allotted, and often it feels like Pearls would be a richer work had Lowe restricted herself to half as many stories and issues. A strand with fewer pearls would have that much more luster.

Curt.Holman@creativeloafing.com

String of Pearls plays through April 3 at Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave. Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m. $20-$25. 404-584-7450. www.horizontheatre.com.??