Natchez Little Theatre is proud to present for the Natchez Fall Pilgrimage “The Little Foxes” by renowned Southern playwright Lillian Hellman. It is about a prominent Southern family in 1900 whose greed is insatiable. “The Little Foxes” is a 1939 play, and its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 of the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” Set in a small town in Alabama in 1900, it focuses on the struggle for control of a family business but could just as easily be set in Natchez at the same time.

This is going to be a most memorable show with powerful performances by all. Starring as Regina Hubbard Giddens is Katharine Parrish, and as her brothers, Bo Allen as Ben Hubbard and Tam Winston as Oscar Hubbard. The supporting cast is phenomenal as well, with Kaye Stucky, in her NLT debut, as Birdie Hubbard; Katie Borum and Hannah Hargis sharing the role of Alexandra Giddens; Ben Burke as Horace Giddens; Micah Graves as Leo Hubbard; Courtney Denise Fleming as Addie; Devonte Demby as Cal; and Tyler Brown as William Marshall.

Layne Taylor directs with Demby as the assistant director and Sara Davis as the stage manager. The costumes are beautiful, and Don Vesterse returned to Natchez to create the stunning sets..

The fictional Hubbards in the play are reputedly drawn from Lillian Hellman’s Marx relatives. Hellman’s mother was Julia Newhouse of Demopolis, Ala. Julia Newhouse’s parents were Leonard Newhouse, a Demopolis wholesale liquor dealer, and Sophie Marx, of a successful Demopolis banking family. According to Hellman, Sophie Marx Newhouse never missed an opportunity to belittle and mock her father for his poor business sense in front of her and her mother. The discord between the Marx and Hellman families was to later serve as the inspiration for the play.

The play’s focus is Regina Hubbard Giddens, who struggles for wealth and freedom within the confines of an early 20th-century society where fathers considered only sons as legal heirs. As a result of this practice, her avaricious brothers Benjamin and Oscar are independently wealthy, while she must rely upon her sickly, wheelchair-using husband Horace for financial support.

Regina’s brother Oscar married Birdie, his much-maligned alcoholic wife, solely to acquire her family’s plantation and its cotton fields. Oscar now wants to join forces with his brother Benjamin to construct a cotton mill. They need an additional $75,000 and approach their sister, asking her to invest in the project. Oscar initially proposes marriage between his son Leo and Regina’s daughter Alexandra — first cousins — as a means of getting Horace’s money, but Horace and Alexandra are repulsed by the suggestion. Horace refuses when Regina asks him outright for the money, so Leo, a bank teller, is pressured into stealing Horace’s railroad bonds from the bank’s safety deposit box.

Tallulah Bankhead starred as Regina Giddens, when the play premiered on Feb. 15, 1939, at the National Theatre. It ran for 410 performances, before its extensive tour of the United States.

Lillian Hellman wrote the screenplay for a 1941 film version starring Bette Davis. In 1949, the play was adapted for an opera entitled “Regina” by Marc Blitzstein. In 1946, Hellman wrote “Another Part of the Forest,” a prequel chronicling the roots of the Hubbard family.

Don’t miss “The Little Foxes,” which runs at at 7:30 p.m. every Friday, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday from Sept. 25 to Oct. 10. “The Little Foxes” closes on Sunday, Oct. 11, with a 2 p.m. matinee. All tickets are $15. For reservations, call NLT at 601-442-2233; toll free: 877-440-2233; email: NatchezLT@cableone.net or pre-purchase online to avoid the Fall Pilgrimage box office lines at natcheztheatre.org.

We look forward to seeing you at Natchez Little Theatre during Fall Pilgrimage!

 

Layne Taylor, Director of “The Little Foxes” and Artistic/Executive Director of NLT