Review of The House Theatre of Chicago's Hatfield & McCoy

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Hatfield & McCoy. It was by Shawn Pfautsch; the original songs were by Pfautsch and Matt Kahler. It was directed by Matt Hawkins. It was about two families, the Hatfields and the McCoys, who were both from the South. They had had a feud ever since the Hatfields had killed Asa "Harmon" McCoy (Cody Proctor) because he was a Union soldier. When Rose Anna McCoy (Haley Bolithon) and Johnse Hatfield (Kyle Whalen) fall in love, their families become pitted against each other even more than before. It is about devotion to family, forbidden love, and violence. I think this is an absolutely fascinating and breathtaking show. I really liked it.

This is a romanticized version of the relationship between Rose Anna and Johnse. The real version was they met, they liked each other, he impregnated her, abandoned her, and then married her cousin. But I like this version a lot better. It would have been cool if they'd kept the part where she rides a horse, while pregnant, in the dark mountains to warn him about a McCoy attack. (He STILL married the cousin.) Then they could have used the House Theatre's puppet skills! Rose Anna and Johnse seem to be dumb in love at the beginning but by the end you see all the ways they do connect and you start to think it is real love. This is a lot like Romeo and Juliet because they fall in love over dancing together. I think you actually get to see even more depth to Rose Anna and Johnse's relationship, because they don't spend so much time talking about how beautiful the other is. They seem to be actively trying to get everyone to get along, but Romeo and Juliet conceal their love instead of using it for good. Rose Anna and Johnse sang a song together that was a version of the morning lark/nightingale debate that Romeo and Juliet have. I thought it was a really sweet rendition of it. They seemed to be singing it to each other, which I thought was very nice. It was just a genuine and adorable song. I also really like how they had Rose Anna sing Romeo's part of the balcony scene and how she was admiring him from afar instead of the other way around.

I think the violence in this play was really effective. There were so many guns you couldn't keep track. It made this story not just a love story, but gave it some action. It wasn't just for the heck of it; it moved the story forward a lot of the time. It is definitely trying to say that violence is not the answer, but the choreography (by Hawkins) of the violence makes it really mesmerizing. The people who were using the most amount of violence were always in the wrong, and that was clear, but they were complicated characters, not just villains. I feel like Devil Anse Hatfield (Robert D. Hardaway) was a very violent but sympathetic character. You could see he loved his family, but he wouldn't put anything else above that. And he only seems to care about his own family, and will do what he has to do to keep them safe, and he's also paranoid about it. He's not selfish; he's clannish. He thinks that his family is most important, and even when he is faced with someone who thinks family should be first, like Sarah McCoy (Stacy Stoltz), he has sympathy with her but not enough to change his behavior and spare her family. The first time Devil Anse actually loses someone, he uses violence to mourn them. And that leads to more mourning and more violence. It is an endless cycle of violence and death and loss.

Even though the families have a feud that has been going on for a really long time, they share a lot of the same interests. They both love folk music. They both think family comes first. They both believe in God, but they have slightly different ways of approaching religion. And neither family was good at managing their children or at family planning. The McCoy boys--Tolbert (Tommy Malouf), Pharmer (Royen Kent), and Bud (Ethan Peterson when I saw it)--and the Hatfield girls--Victory (Jenni M. Hadley), Ellie (Tia Pinson), and Grace (Ann Delaney)--are always running wild; they always seem to have a gun or a knife. They could have done a three brides for three brothers situation there, but the brides would have killed the brothers. It was interesting that the McCoys seemed more refined in general with their plays and their no-nonsense father (Anish Jethmalani) and sweet mother, but they had the most unpredictable family member, "Squirrel Huntin" Sam McCoy (Bradley Grant Smith). Sam never stopped being drunk, but he seemed to also care about family, which was sad because he couldn't help them. And when he tried to help them it was drastic. Levicy Hatfield (Marika Mashburn) also seems to drink her problems away, but she never gets the opportunity to do anything as drastic as Sam did.

People who would like this show are people who like forbidden love stories, drunk uncles, and loads of guns. I think this is an awesome show. It is a compelling, romantic, and complicated story. I really liked it.

Photos: Michael Brosilow