Theatre Knoxville Downtown presents Georgia-based playwright Leslie Kimbell’s 2021 play Packing Up Polly, a playful and bittersweet story of long-lasting friendships and grace through vulnerability. Director Jill Stapleton Bergeron puts a fun, Dolly Parton-esque twist on the legacy of the fictional gospel singer of the play’s title, making this production feel special to Knoxville audiences. Bergeron blends this play with our own local country music legend for a deeply heartfelt production focusing on family and the healing power of love.
Caroline Porter Cook, played by Theatre Knoxville Downtown’s Board President Sarah Campbell, is a Savannah, Georgia, native returning home from her life in Atlanta after the death of her mother, gospel singer Polly Porter. Caroline struggles with the loss of her mother and the new, pressing task ahead of her: packing up all her mother’s things. Miss Polly was a hoarder, and Caroline must rely on the help of her old high school friends to get through all of the clutter—both material and emotional. Campbell lends nuance to Caroline’s fluctuating emotions, moving adroitly from nostalgia to grief and anger, as anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one can attest to. Elizabeth (Lizzy) Jennings, played by Laura Connelly in her onstage debut with TKD, is the first to offer a helping hand, if at times she can be an overbearing and zealous go-getter—qualities no doubt useful to her role as the owner of the Miss Georgia Belle Pageantry competitions. Occasionally tossing away Miss Polly’s things without giving Caroline time to process, Connelly’s Lizzy is the perfect nosy, gossipy Southern woman, but beneath her snarky demeanor is a heart of gold.
Lizzy recruits two of her and Caroline’s other friends to join in the effort—Rebecca Bailey, a mother of four with another on the way, and Donna Jo Martin, Savannah’s local theater diva. Michelle Badgley’s Rebecca is the funniest of the bunch, waddling around the stage and playing up the bodily discomforts that come with the later stages of pregnancy. At one point, she finds herself on the floor, unable to get up, with the rest of the girls humorously but ineffectively trying to help her. Julia Dietz’s multiply-divorced Donna Jo is also hilarious, with her high nasal diva vocal delivery—everything is an act at first, but Donna Jo warms up and becomes more relatable as the plot advances. Dietz plays the role very well and was a good choice for her acting ability, but she is visibly younger than the rest of the cast, which at first is a bit difficult to wrap one’s head around, especially since all four women were supposed to have gone to high school together. However, aside from this small difference, all four women make a delightful and dynamic group of friends, with all the drama, gossip, hidden secrets and sisterly love that comes with female friendships.
Miss Polly’s house, the setting for Packing Up Polly designed by Director Jill Stapleton Bergeron, is a cozy country home with an eclectic collection of objects scattered around: is it “momma’s stuff” as Caroline puts it, or just junk to be taken to the church charity, as Lizzy sees it? Miss Polly’s ashes, still in the cardboard shipment box, remain on a coffee table throughout most of the production, a silent and solemn reminder of the presence and power of Miss Polly over each woman’s life, especially Caroline’s. In tender moments, Caroline speaks to Miss Polly in the box, seeking support and guidance for this difficult time in her life. At the beginning, Caroline asks her mother’s ashes what she should do about getting the girls back together, and, like magic, the late Miss Polly provides the opportunity for confrontations, reconnections, and renewed dreams. Packing Up Polly is a play for the girls, for honoring mother-daughter relationships, our closest female friends, and the transformative power those relationships hold. And one of the best examples of those bonds is represented through cheerleading choreography, created by Leia Riehl, that the women reminisce with: they find their old pom poms and bows, and return for the curtain call with a final rah-rah, symbolic of their renewed friendships, with the audience participating in the chant.
Packing Up Polly runs at Theatre Knoxville Downtown’s playhouse, 800 South Central Street, until August 11, with showtimes on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm and a matinee on Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are available at the box office and at https://theatreknoxville.com.
I love this production! The whole cast is gold!😁👍 Great review!