Gertrude Stein said, "...for every story worth telling, there’s a dozen secrets worth keeping."
Any gabfest should be so lucky as to unearth the secrets of the literati gathered one evening at Gertrude Stein's country home in France. Then again, few gabfests would include such a coterie of intriguing talented women as playwright Steven Carl McCasland's Little Wars. During one evening in 1940, just before France fell to Germany, the stories that emerge are personal, universal, often heart-rending and even horrifying.
In McCasland's briskly paced plot, Gertrude (Polly McKie), her lover/muse, Alice B. Toklas (Penny Lynn White), and a maid, Bernadette (Samantha Hoefer), are waiting for their guests, Agatha Christie, Lillian Hellman and her friend, Dorothy Parker. The first visitor, however, is Muriel Gardiner (Kristen Gehling) with the codename "Mary." A New Jersey psychiatrist working in the Austrian underground, she has come to collect money for false passports enabling Jews to flee Germany. She travels with the money and passports sewn into the lining of her hat. Gertrude and Alice happily contribute and urge her to stay for the night.
When the others, acerbic Lillian (Kimberly Faye Greenberg), quick-witted Dorothy (Dorothy Weems), and finally, dramatically, Agatha (Kim Rogers) arrive, alcohol quickly loosens the tongues. There is open hostility between Gertrude and Lillian, fueled through the evening by Scotch. Gertrude fiercely resents Lillian's first hit play, The Children's Hour, and calls Lillian, "Lily Ann," which Lillian hates. When Gertrude first meets Dorothy, she calls her, "Dot" and quips, "Criticism seems such a waste of words. What do you write well, Dot?" Dorothy, rarely at a loss for words, snaps back, "Everything."
High tension fills the room although Gertrude insists she is debating. "Lily Ann is the fighter and I am the debater. There is a difference, and this is a salon, and in salons we debate about fighting instead of fighting about debating." Yet, it is actually, Mary, who is the center of attention. Agatha is insatiably curious, anxious to delve into stories about everyone, especially Mary. Lillian also questions Mary about her background, her intentions, her occupation, her family. Why is Mary even here? Mary reveals as little as she can but through the evening, her story as a courier emerges.
Playwright McCasland finds smooth paths for everyone's stories, often providing turning points and always personal, one almost flowing into the next. For example, when Dorothy wants to hear some music, they put on the radio and suddenly, a broadcast interrupts announcing France's surrender to Germany. Everyone knows the future is threatened, although the maid, Bernadette, a closeted German Jew who was brutally raped, is left most vulnerable. She must be helped, and each woman steps in. As Parker says, "It’s not the tragedies that kill us. It’s the little messes... The little wars."
Lillian is the last to support Muriel, finally putting aside her usual self-absorption and stepping to the front to help, not only with money but as a courier with her.
Years later, back in her New Jersey practice, Muriel read Lillian Hellman's “Pentimento,” featuring a chapter about a young woman named Julia who helped rescue Jews from the Nazis. She had sewn money into the lining of her hat. It began a debate about Muriel being the real Julia, which Hellman always denied.
Directed by Cara Picone, the play keeps its wartime ambiance of restiveness with lighting by Molly Tiede. Astute casting brings out differentiated characters with distinct voices and commendable acting with special notice to McKie's nuances of depth and emotion to Gertrude and White's delivery of a well-rounded Alice.
The helpful, secretive Bernadette, played by Hoefer, is riveting in her searing story of rape. Greenberg is suitably obnoxious as Lillian and Weems gives Dorothy a waspish edge that softens when she talks of her abortion. Rogers brings a grandeur and vulnerability to Agatha and as Mary/Muriel, Kristen Gehling never loses the anxiety of one always in the shadows.
