Peter Christian Hansen and Sara Marsh Photo by Alyssa Kristine

The thing is, Lola has a great need to love someone–even if it is a non-human companion. She tries to love Doc, her husband of twenty years, but he deflects her efforts to connect, doing so as his own form of survival as an emotionally stunted man and a recovering alcoholic. Lola tries to love the young college student, Marie, who rents a room in the Delaney home. Marie is the same age that the child Doc and Lola would have raised and loved if their baby had survived, a misfortune that left Lola unable to bear any more children. Sheba allowed Lola to love her, but now she is gone, leaving Lola adrift.

Come Back, Little Sheba was William Inge's first big success, the play that made him one of the major mid-century American playwrights when it opened on Broadway in 1950. Inge followed up in rapid succession with three more hits: Picnic (1953), Bus Stop (1955) and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). Picnic won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, while both Bus Stop and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs were nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play of their season. All four plays were adapted into notable films, and in 1962 Inge won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Splendor in the Grass.

However, after that meteoric decade, Inge's star declined. His plays and films that followed were unsuccessful, and he died by suicide in 1973. Today his plays are not nearly as well known as they deserve to be. Dark and Stormy Production's current mounting of Come Back, Little Sheba should raise Inge's profile among Twin Cities theatregoers. The play is trenchant drama, and while it is traditional in structure, in the style common to its era, Inge's script is strikingly well written, with crisp and authentic dialog, compelling characters, and a theme that is timeless. Dark and Stormy's production handles the material with clarity and incisiveness under Brian Joyce's fluid direction.

While these are reasons enough to highly recommend Come Back, Little Sheba, especially if you are unfamiliar with Inge's work, the production teeters somewhat out of balance in the mismatch of its two lead performances. Peter Christian Hansen is outstanding as Doc, capturing his submerged resentment at feeling trapped in a life with Lola, using all of his self-discipline to maintain the veneer of civility and gentleness that enables him to remain sober. It hasn't always been thus, and he is terrified of what might happen if he loses that self-control again. Hansen also persuasively reveals the stirring of repressed desire that swims beneath Doc's display of chaste, fatherly affection for Marie.

Hansen also conveys Doc's disappointment that events caused him to give up his dream of a physician's career to become a chiropractor–which, in 1950 was far below the status of physician, and in many quarters considered quackery. It is ironic that Inge has his anti-hero called Doc as he carries the weight of his disappointment in every encounter. Lola often calls him "Daddy," another title that does not match his biography. Hansen emits a slight shudders each time Doc hears himself called these titles, which are not his name–an insight into a man who feels robbed of what he was meant to be.

Sara Marsh is a consummate actor, blazing in roles that capitalize on her intelligence, such as the imperious Jean Brodie, the depressed Jessie in 'Night, Mother, who resolves through the exercise of lucid reason to end her own life, or Marjorie, the would-be victim who gets the upper hand on her would-be rapist in Extremities. Lola, however, is somewhat of a dim bulb. She rhapsodizes her memories of the idyllic, pure love that brought her and Doc together, contrary to numerous indications otherwise, not because she is coloring the past to make it more palatable, but because that is how she experienced it. She sees things in their simplest form, as a flat landscape with easy to identify elements without the strain of nuance. It is that way in her romanticizing the carnal relationship between Marie and Turk, the studly athlete who poses in Marie's life drawing class. As Lola, Marsh's robust intelligence shows through, making Lola appear to be a more manipulative, and thus a less sympathetic character.

Added to that are repeated statements about Lola having become fat, dumpy and old over the years. Lola is forty, which is far from old in the year 2025, but might have been viewed as approaching such in 1950, so we can set that aside. But Marsh in no way offers a fat or dumpy visage, nor does the costuming–designed by Marsh to effectively capture the era and social class–create the appearance of a woman carrying a number of extra pounds. Marsh overcomes this discrepancy as best she can, but every time those lines of dialogue are uttered, the play's credibility falters a bit.

Along with these two fine actors, Come Back, Little Sheba boasts a superb cast of players. Madelyn Tax is convincing as Marie, whose rather shallow approach to her life choices makes it easy for Lola and Doc to each mold her into an image that meets their own longings. Jack Bechard gives a terrific performance as the good-looking but cocky and rather brute Turk, who tantalizes Marie with blunt assertions.

Alex Galick makes great sport of Bruce, Marie's straight-laced boyfriend from back in Cincinnati. Katherine Kupiecki is both affecting and comical as Mrs. Coffman, the Delaneys' foreign-born neighbor whose brisk demeanor conceals a caring heart. Erik Haering is delightful as a young milkman charmed by Lola's outrageous attention-seeking banter, while Bob Malos is spot-on as the postman who resists Lola's entreaties until he sees the pain beneath her aberrant friendliness, and views her with sympathy. Malos is also effective as Ed, Doc's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, who appears in a time of crisis.

It is notable that when Inge wrote Come Back, Little Sheba, Alcoholics Anonymous was about fifteen years old. Though from its inception the program grew quickly, its nature was not yet very well known, and its position that alcoholism is a disease and not a moral failing–a view Lola expresses in the play–were not so widely held. In 1950, Come Back Little Sheba, in addition to telling a compelling story about two fractured lives, provided audiences with valuable and perhaps controversial insights into the nature of a serious social problem.

The entire play takes place in the Delaneys' shabby home. Bobbie Smith's set effectively lays out the kitchen, living room, and front entry. Shannon Elliott's lighting draws our focus from one space to another, and conveys the arrival of morning light and the darkening light of evening. Aaron Newman's sound design enables us to clearly hear the actors when scenes are split between two of those spaces, and provides apt period music and radio broadcasts that are elements of some of the scenes (television was in its infancy, and the Delaneys' rely on a radio for home entertainment). Dialect coach Keely Wolter has drawn forth a range of accents that distinguish the characters' speech.

While the production could have been made stronger with an actor bearing a stronger physical resemblance to Lola, as described in the play, all of the performances are outstanding. Moreover, the play, far from being a dated, soapy 1950s drama, resonates with its fraught emotions, missed opportunities, and bad choices, along with the effects of alcohol abuse, as apt to haunt us in 2025 as in 1950. Inge's writing and narrative construction still shine, making Come Back, Little Sheba a powerful stage work that ought not be missed.

Come Back, Little Sheba runs through September 7, 2025, at the Gremlin Theatre, 550 Vandalia Street, Saint Paul MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-401-4506 or visit www.darkstormy.org.

Playwright: William Inge; Director: Brian Joyce; Scenic and Props Design: Bobbie Smith; Costume Design: Sara Marsh; Lighting Design: Shannon Elliott; Sound Design: Aaron Newman; Dialect Coach: Keely Wolter; Stage Manager: Megan Gaffney; Producer: Sara Marsh

Cast: Jack Bechard (Turk), Alex Galick (Bruce), Erik Haering (Milkman/Elmo Huston/Messenger), Peter Christian Hansen (Doc), Brian Joyce (Radio Announcer Voiceover), Katherine Kupiecki (Mrs. Coffman), Bob Malos (Postman/Ed Anderson), Sara Marsh (Lola), Madelyn Tax (Marie).