Ellington

When I was a child, we spent summers in the Catskill Mountains, where my mother ran a beauty shop. My father would drive up from Manhattan to join us on weekends. The small town of Liberty, N.Y., and the Appalachian foothills were my playground. I spent many happy days picking wild strawberries and blueberries, or catching minnows and salamanders in the clear creeks and ponds. I was 8 when these summer idylls ended.

When I was 17, mom and I went back to Liberty. As excited as I was to go, the reality was harsh. Gone were the fields and woods, replaced by concrete and strip malls. The place was unrecognizable. It was good to go back, though. It made my childhood memories far more precious to know that the place I once knew was gone.

In Horton Foote's play, "The Trip to Bountiful," aging Carrie Watts, living with her son Ludie and daughter-in-law Jessie Mae in 1950s Houston, simply wants to go home to Bountiful, Texas. Under the manipulative thumb of Jessie Mae, she has become a person she doesn't like. Shirley Simpson, a frequent player at New Stage, provides a beautiful, nuanced portrayal of Carrie Watts: At once tender-hearted and conciliatory, she's also a clever survivor, full of stories and good humor.

Jessie Mae Watts, played by another New Stage regular, Jo Ann Robinson, is, in comparison, nearly all exterior. Jessie Mae's pathological narcissism controls unbendingly. Early on, you realize there's no point in not playing by Jessie Mae's rules; she'll win simply because it's easier to give in. There are a few poign-ant glimpses into Jessie Mae's inner life, but they are as fleeting as such a character is capable of providing. Her inability to take responsibility provides comic relief in what is largely a serious play.

Long-suffering Ludie Watts is almost a ghost in comparison to these two women. Having recovered from an unnamed long-term illness, his motivation seems solely to keep the peace, to the frequent detriment of his mother and his own masculinity. Joseph Frost gives an understated and controlled performance in the role, an effective counterpoint to Robinson's vigorous portrayal of Jessie Mae.

Both Ludie and Jessie Mae see Carrie's desire to go home as a pipe dream. They know the town of Bountiful and its people are gone, and that Carrie's health will not allow her to live on her own. Their point of view isn't unreasonable, yet for Jessie Mae, living with Carrie is one petty annoyance after another. Carrie sings "out of style" hymns, runs when she should be walking and goes suspiciously "silent," hiding her motives from this woman whose own motives are laughably transparent.

Carrie, though, knows she must return. Whatever Bountiful has become, it's her home, and it contains the remnants of her strength and identity. Mississippians, often so rooted in the land that there's almost no distinction between it and what flows through their veins, will recognize and sympathize with this woman's yearning.

Carrie makes good her escape, boarding a bus with her pension check secured next to her ailing heart. It is on her journey that Carrie comes back to herself, gaining strength with every mile and every memory. The hunch-backed victim trapped in the two-room Houston apartment disappears. This Carrie finds joy in the small victories.

Friendly strangers are a hallmark of Foote's plays, and "Bountiful" is no exception. Fellow-traveler Thelma, gently played by Kristen Patton, and Ron Mill's burly country sheriff take little convincing to help Carrie on the journey, despite a clearly displeased Ludie and Jessie Mae.

Children, more a concept than reality, wind throughout the play. If set in more modern times, childless Jessie Mae's selfish energy might be channeled into a dynamic CEO role instead of the rigid control she exerts over her family. But this is the '50s, and Jessie Mae is no career woman. Carrie's role in life has been wife and mother. She still feels the pain of losing two babies, one to diphtheria, an almost unknown disease today. Ludie's sadness, we feel, stems from an apparent inability to father children and provide a prosperous life, despite the sacrifices his family made for his education.

Surely, though, audiences will relate easily to the timeless nature of the characters' longing for a place in the world, their desire to connect at the most basic level and their need to live well in a world that hasn't quite turned out the way it should have.

"The Trip to Bountiful" plays Wed., Jan. 31 through Sun., Feb. 4 at the New Stage Theater in Belhaven. Curtain is 7:30 p.m., except Sunday's 2 p.m. matinee. Tickets are $5 to $22. 601-948-3533.