Through ‘The Cover of Life,’ TNT brings another good story to life

The cast does a fantastic job in this story about women under pressure.

By TRACEY D’ASTOLFO

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

NILES — Before you sit down to “The Cover of Life” at Trumbull New Theatre, you have to know what the title means.

Back in the days when the print media was king, Life magazine was pretty much the pinnacle. The popular oversized magazine covered the American landscape, lending legitimacy to people while revealing them in glorious photo spreads.

To make it onto the cover of Life ... well, that was quite an honor. And, in R.T. Robinson’s play, that’s what happens to a group of women who were faithfully waiting out World War II together while their husbands — all brothers — fought in the military.

It’s a great story, so Life magazine sends a reporter to tiny Sterlington, La., where the three wives of the Cliffert brothers have moved in with the boys’ mother, who goes by Aunt Ola.

Aside from their petty squabbles, it’s a warm and homey scene — at least until the second half. That’s when the placid veneer of the women’s lives is ripped off, like a bandage pulled from a festering wound.

A life isn’t always the happy facade you see on its cover — that’s the second part of the double-meaning title.

Lisa J. Bennett is the director who calmly lays bare a time and place that is ingrained in the American psyche, not only for its heroics, but its roiling social schisms.

The action mostly occurs in the kitchen and living room of Aunt Ola. It’s a piece of Americana, with its hideous yellow floral wallpaper and a screen door smacking in its frame. 

The dialogue drives it home, even if America was probably never this corny.

“Ain’t it a sin to like someone else’s cooking better than your mama’s?” Aunt Ola is asked.

“Yes, it says so right in the Bible,” she responds.

The ensemble cast does an exemplary job in this story about women under pressure, which by the way, is also an indictment of Southern-style sexism and a media that won’t let facts ruin the story it wants.

The two central characters are Maria Wright as Tood, one of the young wives, and Barb Timmins as Kate, the Life reporter from New York City who is sent to get the patriotic story.

Both actresses wonderfully embody the city vs. country culture clash, while bonding over the second-class citizen anger their characters share. 

As a whole, the entire cast shares an intuitiveness that injects the group scenes with realism.

JoAnn Winterbauer is convincing as the homespun Aunt Ola, long suffering but always feisty. The same can be said for Maureen Sweet, who plays Weetsie, the plain wife who sees the war as a temporary delay to the modest life she has planned.

Stephanie DeChant is exceptional as the third wife, Sybil, a “modern” Southern belle who chafes at the small-town ways of her colleagues. DeChant is absolutely volatile in this fiery role, steaming up the stage in one interlude and boiling over with rage in another.

Rounding out the cast are Micky Burnsworth, irrepressible as Addie Mae, the local newspaper reporter; and Nathan Fenstermaker, who plays Tood’s sailor boy husband.

X“The Cover of Life” will be performed at 8 p.m. Jan. 18, 19, 25 and 26, and 3 p.m. Jan. 27, at Trumbull New Theatre, 5883 Youngstown-Warren Road, Niles. Call (330) 652-1103.