Last Train to Nibroc

Here's a review of the most recent play at Taproot. Sarah's name is mentioned.

It's hard to believe that playwright Arlene Hutton wrote this charming and thoughtful romantic comedy only five years ago. Last Train to Nibroc, currently playing at Taproot Theatre, hearkens back to a simpler time when a play could succeed without offering eye-bleeding spectacle, verbal pyrotechnics, or the definitive answer to the meaning of life. The small but surprisingly entertaining Last Train to Nibroc has far more modest intentions, offering the audience only the pleasure of watching two well-drawn characters on a mostly bare stage as they navigate the eternal mystery of courtship. It's 1940 on a train bound east from California carrying the bodies of Nathaniel West and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Raleigh (Timothy Hornor), a young soldier with ambitions of becoming a writer, takes a seat next to a pretty but very proper girl (Charity Parenzini) who dreams of doing missionary work in far-flung locales. But the soldier has just been mysteriously discharged and the girl isn't quite as prim as she seems. For the next three acts—spanning three years—they talk, they laugh, they flirt, and they argue. In less capable hands, it could have been insufferable. But director Karen Lund has carefully marshaled every element of stagecraft—evocative scenic and sound design by Mark Lund, lovely costumes by Sarah Jane Burch, and strong but subtle lighting by Andrew Duff—to lift the story and let these two heartbreakingly talented actors take flight. It's the darnedest joy to watch. TAMARA PARIS