The Journal Review

Grace: Two-woman play captures beauty of friendship
By Melissa Hall
KERNERSVILLE JOURNAL REPORTER

The Kernersville Little Theatre opened its 2006-07 season with a show about a friendship that develops between two women who are polar opposites.

Grace and Glorie is the story of Grace, a 90-year old woman who is dying of cancer and Gloria, her hospice worker who has moved to the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia from New York City.

Gloria volunteers at a hospital to help terminally ill people, and Grace is her third assignment.

Pat Shumate plays Grace, and Cheryl Ann Roberts plays Gloria. Both women are on stage together for most of the play. Grace and Glorie are the only two characters, and Shumate and Roberts carry the show very well.

The play is a blend of offbeat humor and sadness as the two women finally come to respect each other and the worlds they come from.

Much of the humor in the play comes from Grace trying to understand things that Gloria takes for granted. Gloria puts hair mousse in Grace's hair.

Grace asks her what it is and then replies, "If I lived another 50 years I would never have thought of putting meringue in my hair."

When Grace continually calls Gloria Glorie, the volunteer asks why she does that. Grace said that Glorie comes from an old hymn that her mother taught her.

There was almost a full house at the Korner's Folly Theater on opening night. The intimacy of the small theater, which seats about 60 people, is a good choice of venue for this play. The audience almost becomes part of the play.

Because it is a two-woman play, the dialogue is more conversational than most plays. Shumate and Roberts bring their characters to life without getting too sentimental.

Roberts and Shumate are veterans of the theater, and their experience shows. Roberts takes a character that could easily become a bore and keeps her fresh and funny.

Shumate's performance of an elderly mountain woman who has never been more than 50 miles from the farm where she lives is moving and funny without turning into a caricature.

• Melissa Hall can be reached at 996-6601 or mhall@wsjournal.com

• Performances of Grace and Glorie are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Sept. 28, 29, and 30 and 3 p.m. Sunday and Oct. 1. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and students. Reservations are required. Call 993-6556.