The Tellico Community Players will be performing the classic Broadway play “Harvey” starting next week.
Written by Mary Chase, the play won a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1945 and was one of the longest-running shows on Broadway in the 1940s.
Directed by Courtney Woolard, a Knoxville-based veteran of many regional stage performances, “Harvey” is probably best known from the 1950 Hollywood movie by the same name that starred Jimmy Stewart.
The play is both drama and comedy, Woolard said, blending fantasy with reality and leaving the audience sometimes wondering what really happened and what was imagined. She said the cast is enjoying getting ready.
“I tell the cast, ‘there’s a reason we call it a play’,” Woolard said. “It’s because we can play.”
The story is about a man named Elwood P. Dowd who has an unusual friend named Harvey. What’s unusual about Harvey, besides being invisible, is that he is a Pooka — a creature from Celtic mythology that can take the form of an animal.
In this case, Harvey is a six-foot invisible rabbit.
Elwood is a pillar of the community, well-spoken and polite. Whether or not Elwood is crazy is a matter of some conjecture among his family. As the play unfolds, the audience will begin asking themselves the same question.
“‘Harvey’ is really about friends and family,” Woolard said.
Elwood is played by Bailey Dufty, an Athens-based actor with many local credits, including the rather versatile character of “man” in a production of “Stories My Grandmother Told Me” performed by TCP in June.
Dufty said one of his biggest challenges is trying not to play Jimmy Stewart. The character of Elwood has through the years become totally entwined with Stewart’s in a way that makes it hard to imagine anybody else playing the role.
Another challenge, which was a bit easier, was playing opposite an invisible character. Dufty, who comes from a family of actors, including two brothers, said he’s been preparing for the challenge for a long time.
“My brothers and I played games with invisible characters,” he said.
How well the audience sees the invisible character of Harvey is up to the talent of the actors and the stage crew. The audience is expected to do its part with a few subtle hints and a little imagination.
Dufty sees the story as a comedy and drama wrapped in larger issues about mental health. Is Elwood crazy just because he thinks he has a six-foot invisible rabbit for a friend? Does his charm and otherwise harmless personality excuse the fact he might be just a little bit “off-plumb?” Is he a danger to himself or others?
Elwood’s sister Veta thinks her brother is insane. She is a social climber who worries more about whether her brother is more of a threat to her reputation than the public at large. Veta is bound to have Elwood committed to a mental institution so he won’t be an embarrassment to the family.
Veta is played by Jodi Moody, a local actress who first became involved with theater in high school. She stepped away from the arts to become a mother and caregiver to her child. After 25 years, she returned to local productions as a director, acting teacher and actress.
In Moody’s opinion, Veta, who doesn’t see invisible animals, is as much of an oddball as her brother.
“She’s a little bit scatter-brained,” Moody said. “She thinks her brother is insane, but he’s more sane than she is.”
Although technically not the lead role, Veta is certainly one of the most interesting characters in the play. Josephine Hull won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Veta in the Hollywood movie.
“As soon as I heard the Playhouse was doing this play I had to do it,” Moody said. “It’s just a classic.”
Veta becomes so consumed with her concern about the family reputation that it causes her to forget what is really important. Elwood, on the other hand, is quite grounded despite his tendency to believe in things that might or might not be real.
Veta does her best to get her brother committed to a mental health institution. Along the way, the audience gets to laugh at how she and other cast members react to Elwood’s explanations and Harvey’s invisible antics.
The audience is left to answer some questions. Is Harvey real? Is Elwood crazy? Does it really matter if someone is a bit eccentric if they are members of the family?
The play is all for laughs, but there is currently a serious debate in the U.S. about “red flag laws” that allow authorities to take action if family members believe another family member is a danger to themselves or others. The debate has been complicated by many of the issues raised in a lighthearted way during this play.
Tickets are still available for performances at 7:30 p.m. July 28-30, 1:30 p.m. July 31, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4-6 and 1:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the Tellico Community Playhouse.
