The Frenzie Returns to the Stage With Lillian Hellman's 'The Children's Hour'

Michael Mercer listens as much as he instructs and observes as much as he blocks, all of which engage his actors in a discovery of their characters that goes beyond a mere directing of their efforts.

That much was evident at a recent rehearsal for The Frenzie - Life Theatre production of Lillian Hellman’s “The Children’s Hour,” on stage at the Barn Theatre at Winthrop off Bloomingdale Avenue in Riverview.

“There will always be a little difference between directors and actors. I was both, so I know,” Mercer told his cast members at the recent rehearsal. “In a play like this pictures are very important to me. [Watching a scene unfold], I ask, ‘Could I come up with some reason that that would make sense?’ What I’m doing is creating balance and conflict.”

Hellman’s 1934 stage play is set in an all-girls boarding school run by two women, Karen Wright and Martha Dobie, who are accused of being lesbians by an angry student, Mary Tilford.

Megan Manno, 15, a student at the arts magnet school at Blake High School, plays the role of Mary.

“I get to overdo things,” Manno said about her character. “Basically, I’m manipulating everybody. Basically, nobody matters but me.”

The play, she added, will open people’s eyes to more than just the damaging effects of prejudice.

“It’s very shocking,” Manno said, “that people can ruin other people’s lives with just a lie.”

Indeed, lies and gossip are at much center stage in this, Hellman’s first play, as is the deep-seated prejudice against homosexuality, which at the time the play was first staged in New York was a taboo topic for outright mention on stage.

That Mercer, who founded the Frenzie Life Theatre company with his wife, Beverly, chooses shows to direct that make his audiences think, question and probe is no surprise.

Frenzie’s first staging was “Edges” and the list of subsequent performances include “Bat Boy: The Musical,” “Dog Sees God,” “Doubt” and “Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage.”

In “The Children’s Hour,” Rachel Comstock plays the role of teacher Martha Dobie and finds in the play a review of topics that need to be addressed.

“It’s about deceit, it’s about lies, it’s about how our lies can destroy people, it’s about the power of negative speech,” she said. “One little lie gets told and it ruins all these people’s lives.”

The character Karen Wright “is the rock for other people,” said Melissa Szumlic, who plays the part of the second boarding school teacher, and the play itself, Szumlic added, “is classic and timeless.”

“Even though it was written and staged in the ‘30’s and revived in the ‘60’s it’s still relevant today,” she said. “It’s about what happens when lies and gossip and judgments get out of hand.”

Cindy Miller-Ray plays the role of Mary’s grandmother, Amelia Tilford, whose character, she said, is good at heart yet starkly represents her generation’s views toward homosexuals.

But the play goes beyond gay prejudice and delves deeper into the dark side of human nature on a more global level.

As Miller-Ray put it: “It says so much about gossip and lies and how much it could hurt other people and innocent people.

Jenny Morgan, as Agatha, the housekeeper, notes, too, that the play is about the aftermath of the telling of a lie, which “snowballs” and “destroys lives.” But there’s also a message of acceptance, Morgan said, “because the lie wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if people accepted lesbianism.”

Show dates for "The Children's Hour" are Aug. 21 at 2 p.m.' Aug. 26-27 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 28 at 2 p.m., at the Barn Theatre at Winthrop, 11349 Bloomingdale Ave., Riverview. Tickets cost $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors, military and students with identification. The show is not recommended for children under age 13. Children under age 5 are not permitted.