Talleys Folly

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Talley's Folly (1980), a play by Lanford Wilson. [Brooks Atkinson Theatre, 277 perf.; Pulitzer Prize, NYDCC Award.] After a long absence, the St. Louis accountant Matt Friedman ( Judd Hirsch) comes calling again on Sally Talley ( Trish Hawkins) at her rural Missouri home. Her bigoted family has told Matt that since he is a Jew he is not welcome, and one member of the family has even threatened to shoot him. Moreover, they have hinted at some dark secret in Sally's past. After a moonlit night of arguing, joking, and wooing down at the dilapidated Victorian boathouse (the family's folly of the title), Sally confesses to Matt that an earlier disease left her unable to bear children and her former fiancé called the wedding off when he found out. Unconcerned and still in love, Matt asks Sally to elope and she agrees. The Circle Repertory Company's production of the brief, two‐character play was so popular that it moved to Broadway, complete with Marshall W. Mason's sterling direction of the two players, John Lee Beatty's rustic setting, and Dennis Parichy's naturalistic lighting. The romantic piece was part of Wilson's trilogy about the Talley family. THE FIFTH OF JULY (1978) had been seen earlier at the Circle Theatre Off Broadway, where it ran 158 performances. Many years after the events of Talley's Folly and on the same rural homestead live Kenneth Talley Jr. ( William Hurt), who lost both legs in Vietnam and now teaches at the high school, and his male lover, Jed ( Jeff Daniels), who is planning and building an elaborate garden on the property. Visiting them for the Fourth of July weekend is Sally ( Helen Stenborg), an elderly widow who has returned with Matt's ashes, which she plans to sprinkle in the lake where he once wooed her. Also gathered are some relatives and an odd assortment of friends who while away the day after the holiday with talk, jokes, arguments, and discussions on whether to sell the old house or not. The Chekhovian character study was described by Otis L. Guernsey Jr. as “a not‐very‐tightly structured study of human spirit in the aftermath of stress.” After the success of Talley's Folly, it was revived on Broadway in 1980 and ran for 511 performances. A 2003 Off‐Broadway production was also well received. The third play of the trilogy, A Tale Told (1981), was not as popular. Showing what occurred in the family home while Matt was courting Sally in Talley's Folly, it was seen Off Broad‐way for 30 performances. Wilson later revised the script and it was produced as Talley & Son in 1985.

Talley's Folly, play by Lanford Wilson.