'Wild Horses' comedy at Williamston Theatre recalls recklessness, freedom of youth
One of the bittersweet aspects of becoming an adult is realizing we’re really never as carefree as we thought we would be when we were teenager looking longingly at the life of our elders.
In a one-woman show getting its Michigan premiere at Williamston Theatre from Jan. 26 to Feb. 26, the protagonist reflects back on her life as a 13-year-old, a wild summer that forever changed her. Directed by Mary Job, Allison Gregory’s “Wild Horses” features Suzi Regan as a middle-aged mom who wonders how, as the mother of teenagers, she lost touch with her younger self.
“The character is a woman of a certain age,” Job said. “She is looking back on this particular summer of her 13th year. The idea of a middle-aged woman looking back at her teenage years really appealed to me. Teenagers are all about testing limits, finding their own selves as opposed to what their parents think about them. But a middle-aged woman is also about limitations. You have teenage children, you have a job, you have all sorts of things.”
“Wild Horses” in part explores all the boundaries you have as an adult that your 13-year-old self didn't think existed, Job said.
The narrator in “Wild Horses” sets a comic tone as she recalls the summer of her 13th year in the 1970s when she did such things as steal alcohol with her friends, explore love with a boy, escape her room through the window in the middle of the night and borrow cars without permission. Then there was the pact she made with her best friends to free the horses at a nearby horse ranch.
“The script itself is just lovely,” Job said. “It’s often funny. The story the woman is telling and her attempt to reconnect with this point of her life is both funny and moving.”
While the various characters all have names, neither she nor her younger self do. They are “woman” and “girl.” It’s something Job feels makes the character more relatable.
“There’s a certain everywoman aspect about her,” Job said. “We all hit that period ... grabbing at freedom and grabbing at this or that. Now you’re no longer that person and it seems like you’ve lost her or him.”
Job said she also relished the opportunity to work with Regan, an actor she admired since Regan was working at the Purple Rose back in the 1990s.
“Suzi is a great storyteller,” Job said. “She understands the play on a very instinctive level and understands the aspect of telling the story, but she also just really dives into who this person is, what does she want, who is this girl and what does the girl want.”
Job, who teaches theater and acting at Lansing Community College in addition to the professional work she does, enjoys being back at the Williamston Theatre, where she also directed “Memoir” and “Taking Shakespeare.”
“You’re dealing with people who have a real commitment to excellence and you’re working with professional actors, which is very different from working with student actors or even talented amateur actors,” Job said. “They come with a whole lot of skill sets and a background that you have to honor.”
The story takes place at a coffee shop which was a Tastee Freeze in the narrator’s teen years. It’s a place, Job said, that has been gentrified the way that teenagers are gentrified into middle age. The set, which is designed by Aaron Delnay, is intended to draw audiences into the coffee shop to hear the story being told, and then fade away as the events take place.
As sound designer, John Lepard has put together a musical track of the 1970s with tunes from Three Dog Night, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, among others.
If you go
What: “Wild Horses,” a play by Allison Gregory
Who: Where: Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam Street, downtown Williamston
When: Feb. 3-26; with previews Jan. 26-29. The show will run at 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays.
Info: Williamstontheatre.org
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Williamston Theatre's 'Wild Horses' recalls recklessness, freedom of youth
