Emily White ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer Cicely Tyson, Blair Underwood and Vanessa Williams in The Trip to Bountiful. Photo Credit: ArtsEmerson.
What happens when a Horton Foote play about a working-class family in late 1940s Texas originally written to be performed by an all-white cast is cast to be performed by an all-black cast? You get a Tony award-winning performance by the esteemed Cicely Tyson, who sparkles with exuberance beyond her years in the starring role as Carrie Watts. You also get strong performances from Golden Globe nominee Blair Underwood who plays her son, Ludie, and Grammy and Tony nominee Vanessa Williams as his bossy wife, Jessie Mae. The play centers on Carrie’s desperate dream to visit her hometown of Bountiful, Texas before she dies, despite all obstacles against her. What Miss Tyson brings to the performance, however, makes the story about so much more.
Tyson charms the audience from the beginning of the play with her spunky and snarky portrayal of Carrie. Her Carrie Watts sneaks around the house behind the back of Ludie and Jessie Mae like a rebellious teenager, as she gleefully plans her secret escape from their shared home in Houston back to her original home in Bountiful. Miss Tyson skillfully plays an elderly woman who is both youthful inside and yet entirely aware of how her age appears to others – which she uses for her own exploitative value – with extreme physical adeptness that is beautiful to watch. Tyson’s performance, particularly in a scene in which a sheriff questions her sanity, causes the audience to question the treatment and role of the elderly in society today, which is surprisingly just as similar, or perhaps more, stifled than the rigid and empty life Carrie Watts is forced to live in Houston. Blair Underwood and Vanessa Williams in The Trip to Bountiful. Photo Credit: Craig Schwartz.
The race-conscious casting decisions also raise new questions and messages from the play, which was originally written by Horton Foote in 1953, and adapted into a movie in 1985 which starred Geraldine Page as Carrie Watts. There are no changes to the text of the play, which drives home the message that our stories are, at heart, universal. The sadness of the Watts family and the determination and resilience of Carrie is relatable not only across race but also across decades, as the show still remains salient today. It is certainly interesting how well these stories translate across time and heritage, but still remain very uniquely American. This performance of TheTrip to Bountiful encourages audiences to consider their own relation to the American landscape and the stories their families have to tell. The Trip to Bountiful runs through Sunday, December 7, and tickets can be purchased at artsemerson.org.
