The Ballad Of Babe and Beau opens Friday night for a return engagement at the WPA Theatre in Magdalena.
Reviewed as “a splendid multimedia production in which film, sound and acting all meld together to further the poignant story,” The Ballad of Babe and Beau tells the tale of two aging outlaws who return to the roaring cowtown they remember from their heyday in the 1890’s. However, it’s 1919 - almost 30 years later - and they find the town a dusty remnant of its rowdy past. But neither law nor time has “tamed and tidied” the larger-than-life, dare-anything pair.
The play takes a humorous and penetrating look at what creates legends. and the truth about aging. As the retired local madam says – with a knowing smile, “if you’re old; they think you can’t sin any more.”
The plot thickens when a mock holdup of an automobile by a mounted bandit is to be part of the town’s first annual “Outlaw Days” celebration. But complexities of modern life and a yen for a “last hurrah” tempt even the dour local sheriff to attempt something more authentic.
Video interweaves with stage action, carrying audiences on a journey back to a time when life and landscape seemed to stretch endlessly in an epic adventure. A reviewer said “the films evoke the times and the town and the West. The second act horse–and–car chase is positively brilliant.”
Period music is from Mont L. Laster and Friends, recorded for mid-1950s radio shows in Clarksville, Ark., shifting the mood from lively to sentimental, country to ragtime to waltz.
Actors are Frank Howard, Ruth Ryan, Donna Todd, Donald Wiltshire, and Bennie Zamora. Set/lighting is by Ronald Thornton and sound by Terry Stone. Videos were filmed and edited by Michael Mideke, who also handles the video projection. The play is written and directed by Donna Todd.
Performances are Friday, Oct. 23 and Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m., with a matinee on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 2 p.m., at Magdalena’s WPA Theatre, Main at 4th. Tickets are $5 at the door one hour before performance. Reservations can be made by calling 854-2519, or emailing londonfrontier@gilanet.com.
Further information, and a link to a preview of the show can be found at www.londonfrontiertheatre.com.
“With the generous patronage of The Loan Fund, a supporter of non-profit and small businesses throughout New Mexico, we are able to offer a number of complimentary tickets,” Theatre Director Todd said. “Winners will be chosen at each performance, in a crazy-quilt lottery of surprise categories - a free show, gift of The Loan Fund.”
Winners will have their ticket prices refunded.
Pictured: The cast of ‘The Ballad of Babe and Beau’ during dress rehearsals. From left are Donna Todd, Ruth Ryan, Frank Howard, Don Wiltshire and Bennie Zamora.
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