Butterflies Are Free: A Free Spirited Adventure Back to the 60's

CONROE, TX -- It can be called a late-60’s coming of age story. At least that’s the way I saw it. Where two young people from differing backgrounds in a big city find each other, and over the course of a day can a relationship be forged? Written for the stage in 1969 by Leonard Gershe, and with his body of work, it seems to come out of left field, but he makes it work into an entertaining and at times gripping three act stage play. The Players Theatre Company in Conroe takes flight with ‘Butterflies Are Free,’ complete with the installation of a unique New York City apartment where everything is located in tight confines, and you have to go under the bed to get to the bathroom.

Many may have not known of the stage play, but some old-timers may remember the 1972 film of the same name starring Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, and Eileen Heckart. The play starts with Don Baker (Carlos A. Soto), a blind young man, listening to a tape of his previous night's recording with his hopes set on a musical career. He then prepares himself for an expected phone call from his strong willed mother, knowing the exact lines, and when the conversation occurs, it drew laughs from the audience in its recall and the witty answers from the young man. The call soon erupts to threats of his mother threatening a visit after only half of the time they agreed to the enterprise. She has to go down to Saks Fifth Ave anyway and wants to bring him some shirts.

There is a sudden eruption of loud music from the apartment next door with its paper thin walls. Don ends the call telling his mother not to come. He then knocks on the wall asking for the noise to be turned down, and before you know it, the woman next door then invites herself over for a cup of coffee. The young lady, or former hippie, and aspiring actress, Jill Tanner (Christina Wood), meets her neighbor, and makes small talk in exploring his apartment, which eventually leads to the conflict with the young man’s mother. Don’s manner is one of new found independence. He knows his apartment so well, it’s as if he has the gift of sight, or concentration, and a full 13 minutes passes before Jill, who had grabbed the ashtray when they started smoking, notices that Don is placing his ashes in the same spot with nothing to catch them. There are some great comedic moments in the dialogue much appreciated by the audience.

The different backgrounds of Don and Jill makes this play so interesting. Don, a 20 year old from Scarsdale, obviously from a conservative background, and a mother who onlys wants the best for her son. Then you have Jill, a 19 year old divorcee from a 6 day old marriage to Jack Benson, a product of a mother who never wanted to grow up, with an open parenting style. It makes you wonder what is going on?

Jill tries to impress Don with a quote which includes “The butterflies are free,” and attributes it to Mark Twain, but the well-Brailled Don recognizes it as from Charles Dickens' ‘Bleak House.’ Soon after an indoor picnic is organized. Don realizes that he and Jill are those butterflies, and sings “Butterflies are free, and so are we.” With Jill an open book, Don begins to reveal his childhood, and mentions his mother’s children’s authorship. Her books are about ‘Little Donny Dark,’ a blind super kid that helps police and federal agencies, and is stuff that she projects on her protagonist that her own son is incapable of achieving. He also notes a healthy loathing for the name ‘Donny’ as applied to him. Don also reveals his relationship with Linda, a neighbor that read to him, and took him to parties, inadvertently giving him confidence to live on his own.

Innocent intimacies soon emerge in the image of Don touching Jill’s face, and he starts with her hair discovering her half-wig, or fall, which initial freaks him out, then he discovers her extended eyelashes, but the palpating of her face soon gives way to the young woman leading her hand to her breast, and then kissing him. Don, who had never known physical intimacy, is taken aback thinking Jill feels sorry for him, but she is sincere, and insists on taking her amorous intentions further.

Hours after their adventure together, Jill shares her secret box with Don with her Last Will, and grandiose funeral plans. She explains her actions about the seduction, since Don was the first blind guy she ever made love to. Jill goes off to make coffee, when guess who enters the room, Mrs. Florence Baker (Peggy Sampson), Don’s mother. The friction is heavy with Don and her facade begins to show cracks. He leaves to shop for dinner with Jill that night. Then she learns things from the perspective of Jill. That night as Jill is hours late for dinner, she arrives with the director Ralph Austin (David Chaplin) from her earlier audition, the story then takes twists and turns with emotions flying everywhere. So will Don and Jill wind up together? You’ll have to find out on your own.

Butterflies Are Free was wonderfully written, and it turns out Leonard Gershe knew what he was throwing in from left field. Director Shawn Havranek is a calculus teacher, and he constantly drilled his actors with his formulas for making a great performance. The moment that Don and Jill meet, you can tell it will be an interesting evening. Carlos Soto’s portrayal of Don Baker is strong, and he shows all phases of a young man being confident and broken, yielding to a range of emotions without outspoken joy or bitterness. Soto perfectly captures what you would see in the mannerisms of a blind person, and I expect more great things to come from this young man in the future. Christina Wood perfectly captures the free wheeling spirit of Jill Tanner. For a modern day woman she encapsulates her character’s simplicity which takes some training, yet she grows with her character’s willingness to forego some predestined assumptions in a willingness to change her life, and perhaps grow up. The Grande-Dame of the production, Peggy Sampson, who portrays Mrs. Baker has ironically spent decades in outreach for the blind in Kansas before retiring to Texas. She played Don’s overprotective mother to perfection, and also showed a depth of range in her steadfast resolve to her realization at the end, in letting her Son take his welts in an effort to be a better man. David Chapin plays a commendable yet vital part in Ralph Austin, in pushing the play to its climax.

I was amazed by the amount of lines the cast had to learn, and I detected very few hiccups in the actors' recitations. The Company’s set construction team built a perfect 1969 East Village Manhattan loft apartment, complete with an odd bed/bathroom connection, with questionable plumbing.

I loved the play. I finally found my way out of the woods, to the bright but dingy confines of Lower Manhattan, which I would say is an improvement. And from the front door, it's only a matter of steps to this place or that. I’d recommend the play to anyone over 17 looking for some situations to judge a budding relationship. For me, it’s a giant thumbs up.

See you at the Owen Theatre!

“Butterflies Are Free” runs at the Owen Theatre until July 7th. www.playerstheatrecompany.com or 936-539-4090 for tickets.