On first blush, we aren’t likely to have much in common with wealthy widow Ethel Savage, who decides she’d like to live out her life with the so-called “guests” in a convalescent home rather than dealing with her money-grubbing stepchildren.
But, not so fast, says Evie Durant, director of “The Curious Savage,” a vintage comedy that opens on Friday, Sept. 20, at Oak Street Playhouse.
“[The character] Dr. Emmett talks about the patients … as living in an eggshell world where they purposely keep out information that they find unpleasant,” she said, “and they curate their lives around this place that has become their safe haven. Our current society may seem so very different on the surface, but if you look deeper, we curate our lives through social media and how we get our information to fit our views. And whether we want to only see cute kitten videos or to be completely immersed in current affairs, we are creating our own eggshells around ourselves.”
If you go
* What: “The Curious Savage”* When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 20-21, 26-28; 2 p.m. Sept. 22 and 29* Where: Flo Summitt Theatre, Oak Street Playhouse, Oak and Lindsay Streets inside in First-Centenary United Methodist Church* Admission: $15 adults, $12 seniors and groups, $10 students* For more information: www.oakstreetplayhouse.com
“The Curious Savage” premiered in 1950, according to Durant, but has another theme relatable to 2019 – that of money and society.