RUMINATING ON RUMINANTS
As a way to heal from recent tragedies, Alice (Erin Pineda), a big-city photographer, visits June (Virginia Newcomb), a reclusive artist on a small farm in Alabaster, Alabama. June has answered Alice’s call for externally scarred women willing to be photographed for an upcoming project (not a coffee table book, she insists). But June, who drinks whiskey from a coffee cup and hurls barbs as freely as brushstrokes, is no passive subject. She’s a sharp-edged, wounded provocateur—an extraordinary artist painting on the shattered wooden remnants of a barn destroyed, along with her family, in a tornado so devastating she hasn’t left home in over three years. Their tense first meeting in June’s bedroom soon gives way to an unexpected attraction, and before long, Alice is trying to lure June to Atlanta. June, bleak and isolated on the fringes of American society, feels like a character out of Sam Shepard—except without the poetry.
Erin Pineda and Virginia Newcomb
That’s where Alabaster, now playing at the Fountain Theatre, struggles. Audrey Cefaly’s play wants to be a lyrical excavation of trauma and healing, but the dialogue, while nuanced, lacks the authenticity needed to make it land, but I quite enjoyed the dark humor. The characters—one battered, one bruised—don’t so much uncover their pain as have it handed to them by the playwright. Even with June’s defenses up, revelations spill out with an almost clinical efficiency, leaving little room for discovery or depth. We understand what they’ve endured, but who were they before? The play doesn’t quite tell us.
Virginia Newcomb and Erin Pineda
Yet, the Fountain’s production, directed by Casey Stangl, finds a stunning beauty in the script’s more surreal elements. To wit, there are two goats who have remained on the property since the tornado: the mama goat, Bib (Laura Gardner), who is close to buying the farm, and her kid Weezy (Carolyn Messina), a no-nonsense, advice-giving, worldly-wise, down-to-earth, pragmatically rural ruminant who eats couscous out of a Styrofoam takeaway box. They don’t just roam the periphery—Bib can only bleat, but Weezy comments and advises, grounding the story in something more theatrical, elevating the play beyond its often-unremarkable dialogue. Gardner, in particular, is wonderful, bringing warmth, grit, and an understated power to Bib, making her as compelling as any of the human characters. (I found their names confusing: Bib is always wheezing, but her kid is called Weezy.)
Carolyn Messina and Erin Pineda
Laura Gardner
The Fountain’s design team, as always, delivers. Frederica Nascimento’s set is striking but oddly configured: June’s cramped bedroom, where most of the two-hour, two-act play unfolds, sits stage left, while the garden—separated by a window pane—sprawls out to the right. It’s visually effective but spatially limiting. Alison Brummer’s lighting subtly shifts between realism and dreamlike hues, while Rebecca Carr’s costumes capture both characters’ inner and outer landscapes. Andrea Allmond’s sound design adds a haunting, atmospheric layer to the world, and the scar makeup by Krys Fehervari is positively sensational, as is June’s exquisite artwork—all originals by prop designer Jenine MacDonald.
Laura Gardner and Carolyn Messina
Ultimately, Alabaster wrestles with big, painful themes but doesn’t always find the right theatrical language to express them. Fortunately, the Fountain’s production brings enough artistry—and a few scene-stealing goats—to make the journey worthwhile for you. But when a play like this is produced across the country (it’s already been in Chicago and Florida), I expect something about it to shimmer like gold. You may like it, but it ultimately left ne uninspired—-something that always gets my goat.
Erin Pineda and Virginia Newcomb
photos by Jenny Graham
Alabaster
Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave.
Fri, Sat & Mon at 8; Sun at 2
ends on March 30, 2025
for tickets ($25–$45), call 323.663.1525 or visit Fountain Theatre
pay-what-you-want and regular seating is available Mondays
