‘Tea At Five’ Is One For All Hepburn Fans To See

By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD — Those of us who have lived in Connecticut for a long time tend to have an almost patriotic sense of pride in Katharine Hepburn, the stubborn, outspoken native Nutmegger who combined patrician savoir faire with intellectual substance, haughty indifference to public opinion, and an outspoken scorn for Hollywood and its conventions.

Because she lived long enough to become a national icon, through seventy years in show business, winning four Academy Awards along the way, she was able to make the transition from screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, through her collaborations with her long time lover Spencer Tracy, including Pat and Mike, Woman of the Year, The Desk Set and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, as well as more mature dramatic roles from The African Queen to On Golden Pond and Love Among the Ruins.

In TheatreWorks New Milford’s production of Matthew Lombardo’s one woman play Tea at Five, Noel Desiato achieves the remarkable feat of “becoming” Katharine Hepburn at two very different points in her life: in 1938, when at age 31, the brashly arrogant film star is awaiting a phone call from David Selznick to tell her that she has won the part of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.

Then, forty-five years later, hobbling on a broken ankle suffered in an automobile accident, and trembling with incipient Parkinson’s, the intrepid survivor spikes her tea with whiskey and shares intimate confidences about her life.

The unifying factor is in the title. Set in Fenwick, her family’s waterfront estate in old Saybrook, Hepburn explains that formal five o’clock tea was a fixed family ritual decreed by her mother. Since she is alone in her house, she pours her own cup and makes gracious conversation with the audience.

While her persona in the first act brims with egotism and dramatic affectation, what comes across in Lombardo’s script and in Ms Desiato’s interpretation is a gallant toughness and ability to absorb the many painful blows that punctuated Hepburn’s long life and career.

As she learns, over the phone, that she has been passed over for the role she fully expected to get, she does a comic riff on her checkered history of alternating smash hits (like Baby) with a string of less than memorable flops. She jokes about being labeled “Box Office Poison” by the obnoxious gossip columnist Louella Parsons, and reveals, without any trace of self pity, a family life dominated by a strict but scornful father, and the suicide, at age 15, of her beloved brother.

In the second act, her doughty spirit is very much intact, even as she reflects on the loss of all the people she has known and loved — her family, her ex husband (who remained a friend), her fellow actors, and above all, Tracy, the love of her life. By the end of the evening, you feel that you have been lucky enough to be in the presence of one of America’s great souls.

Ms Desiato’s performance is amazing and wonderful, enhanced by co-directors Jane Farnol and Joseph Russo. The whole effect is riveting and fascinating. If you are a fan of Katharine Hepburn, this is really a show to see.                        

(Due to overwhelming ticket sales, TheatreWorks has already extended the run of Tea At Five. Performances will now continue weekends – including one matinee on Sunday, February 10 –  until February 23. Tickets for all shows are $20 for all performances. Call 860-350-6863 for details and reservations.)