This article provides a summary of two one-act plays presented by Rhubarb Theatre at the Darkhorse Theater in Nashville. The first play, "Last Chance Texaco" by Peter Maloney, focuses on an interaction between a New York woman with car trouble and a mother-daughter duo who work at a Texas gas station. It explores themes of religion, family relationships, and judgmentalism. The second play, "First and Second Timothy" by Carol Caldwell, satirizes televangelists through its portrayal of an enthusiastic preacher who exploits parishioners but has his own hypocrisy exposed. The article provides analysis of themes and performances with high praise for the actresses portraying the gas station daughter and mother.

1. 12/06/2009 10:41Nashville Arts - The Fundamental Question - page 1
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The Fundamental Question
Rhubarb Theatre explores the excesses of Southern
Christianity
Martin Brady
Published on June 12, 2008
White trash and religion are not strange
bedfellows. In fact, they coexist quite
comfortably at the Darkhorse Theater, where
Rhubarb Theatre’s double bill of one-acts,
under the well-modulated direction of Julie
Alexander, takes an entertaining look at some
of Southern Christianity’s off-putting excesses
and colorful characters.
The primary piece here is Peter Maloney’s
Last Chance Texaco, set—as near as you can
discern—in Brazos County in east central
Texas. A New Yorker named Ruth (Helia
Rethmann) has a flat tire in the middle of
nowhere and barely makes it into a service
station. She finds an agreeable young lady
named Cissy (Ree Merrill) willing to help her
out, and as the tire gets patched they begin
to share about their lives. Ruth has serious
baggage—she’s on her way to California after
recently undergoing an abortion—while Cissy’s
lone issue appears to be an elusive Harley-
riding boyfriend.
Western swing wafts atmospherically in the
background and the two become more
acquainted, but the vibe shifts dramatically
with the entrance of Cissy’s mother, Verna
(Trish Crist), a disheveled, disputatious,
housecoat-wearing harridan who eyes
strangers with suspicion and renders snap
judgments way too easily. Verna’s also got a
mean fundamentalist streak, and when she
learns of Helen’s female trouble, she minces
no words in expressing her moral outrage.
The conversation moves along, however, and, to Verna’s discomfort, into an
area of family life that makes Helen’s problems seem almost tame by
comparison. Cissy’s story of fatherly abuse and sadism, dramatically
reenacted, strips the facade off the countrified plainness of Maloney’s initial
setup, exposing Verna’s own Achilles’ heel as wife and mother and drawing
the viewer into a culminating segment of very taut theater.
Merrill’s performance is cleverly yet subtly executed—an appealing blend of
girlish charm and sad-eyed experience. Rethmann, meanwhile, is very
credible as the dispirited Eastern sophisticate way out of her element. Best
of all is Crist, who proves yet again what fine character acting is all about.
Her sharp drawling voice cracks the air like a whip, and she stomps around
with a jittery pathos, alternating wild-eyed biblical pronouncement with
simpleminded and comically mundane concerns.
Richard Sparkman has designed an effectively realistic garage set, replete
with pinup babes and decrepit relics of the car repair culture, while Jason
Schuster adds some nicely understated lighting effects.
Last Chance Texaco is bookended by the two scenes that make up Carol
Caldwell’s new piece First and Second Timothy. A screenwriter and the
author of 2006’s surprise theater hit My Secret Weapon, Caldwell is a
sociopolitical and media-conscious animal, and satire is a prime arrow in her
quiver. Her televangelist figure, played with appropriate fanaticism by Lane
Wright, launches into one of those gently chiding versions of a fire-and-
brimstone speech—the kind any conservative Christian preacher might
deliver on a bright Sunday morning at the local church. Wright even brings a
“parishioner” down from the audience, a shy fellow who humbly testifies to
his participation in Hurricane Katrina clean-up.
After exploiting the earnest young man, Rev. Timothy determinedly
continues with his sermonizing—on the wages of sin and the Bible’s role in
helping us avoid it. Yet the pastor’s piety and self-assuredness are zapped
at the conclusion—we won’t reveal how—while he churlishly invokes the
fallen careers of such iconic forerunners as Jimmy Swaggart and Jim
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2. 12/06/2009 10:41Nashville Arts - The Fundamental Question - page 1
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Bakker.
First and Second Timothy is thoughtful and humorous, a solid companion
piece to the evening’s main event.
Not so obvious artReligion and Rubber Ducks—a recently concluded bill of
three short plays hosted with stylish enthusiasm by painter/designer Veta
Cicolello and her husband, musician Theo Antoniadis, at their converted
auto-garage art space Ovvio Arte, at 425 Chestnut Street—marked an
auspicious return to the Nashville theater scene by writer Joseph Giordano.
Giordano used to mount his angular and/or fanciful playlets and one-man
shows with some regularity at Ken Bernstein’s Bongo After Hours Theatre,
though recently the author, whose upbeat exterior masks decidedly sardonic
thoughts, had been noticeably absent from the scene. Giordano’s recent
chance meeting with Tennessee Rep associate Lauren Shouse—who says
hanging out in bars is wasted time?—spawned this felicitous collaboration.
The newer Giordano works, while still rooted in his characteristic sketch-
comedy mode, exhibit marked maturity, and director Shouse staged them
with both energy and a keen eye for the specifics that maximize textual
impact.
The opener, “Simply the Best,” featuring Sarah Looney and Eric Williams, is
a wry if repetitive concept piece. “The Day the Duck Came Back,” with fine
performances by Jon Royal and Kahle Reardon, offers marvelous
commentary on both the glory and futility of the notion of romantic
permanence. The capper, “The Plan,” enacted by Royal, Andrew Kanies and
Reardon (as a recorder-playing Holy Spirit), is what might be termed classic
Giordano, as God himself cagily outlines for a skeptical Christ the Son the
rationale for the whole, you know, redemption thing.
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