Brother Wolf

Last night I went and saw the best play. It was a reading of play by Preston Lane, who comes from both UNC- Greensboro and Yale. He is a playwright (in case that's not obvious) and from what I can tell he's brilliant. It was a really wonderful play of 5 scenes, 3 sermons and some beautiful Appalachian bluegrass music. The real old kind. The guy who played was Riley Watts (also of Cold Mountain fame) and he was brilliant.

Essentially the play takes place in 1840s and present day Appalachia on the border of NC and TN. I've never been that far but I've heard about those deep mountain people. They're different, and their accent is the closest accent to the Old King's English there ever will be. I imagine that once our culture has fully infiltrated theirs we'll lose a part of our heritage we can never get back. But that's not what this is about. This is about "Beowulf". That's write. I said "Beowulf". Are you seeing the similarities now? Except his name is Brother Wolf and he steps into God's House to protect his family from Gren-dell, the evil demon.

It's passionate, well-articulated and feels authentic. I love the shadow voices and the way they play off each other. From what I saw ofthe press kit the set is excellent. Plain but not too plain. The story of Grendel's Mother and her murder of Mabel Wolf are amazingly done. And the Rattler Man is a character that would easily fulfill Cormac McCarthy's dream antagonist.

The whole thing had a McCarthy feel to it as we are led through the story of love, death and forgiveness in the Christian way. I was riveted by the spirituals and totally absorbed in Brother Wolf's tragic life. I also liked the way so few characters played so many. Preston Lane I actually met on the elevator but was so modest I did not connect it was his play I was watching until I saw his name under the title.