Brenda Meaney and Matthew Greer

Actress Brenda Meaney plays Helen (the central character, who also provides narrative to the audience), a woman who is smart and compassionate and also desperately hopeful that she might find a man. Norman (Matthew Greer) comes along and might be the love interest. He is sincere and caring but not especially strong and quite insecure. Helen, who walks with a slight limp, convinces herself that courtship will lead to marriage and more. It is a fine and moving sequence when Helen and Norman dance around the performance space. Her sister Joyce (Jenny Leona) is physically attractive (might be pregnant at one point) and gets involved with Eric (John Skelley); why does she find him so appealing? Joyce, her good looks notwithstanding, is a jittery young woman.

Sean Cullen plays George (or Da) and manages to situate himself at the upright piano when one wishes he would become more of a proactive person to and for the women in the household. Peggy (Deirdre Madigan) is also referred to as "Saint." Her religion matters greatly to her and the word Communist will send her to emotive extremes. Taylor saves many a punchline for the grandfather of the group, Andie (Richard Kline). A veteran of the first World War and unafraid to be audacious, wise-cracking and/or sarcastic, he absolutely treasures pets, including a recently deceased dog. He urges all around him to live life and rid themselves of introspection, fear of Germans, and anything else. Just get on with it.

David Kennedy, directing, often succeeds at bringing us to a time when the Stott family and others deal with sirens, air raids, and the threat that Hitler might demolish all of them. At the same time, Helen and Joyce are concerned with matters pertaining to men. Mum or Mam Peggy, the churchgoer, is not, by the way, one to condone promiscuity.

Helen (given a lovely turn by Brenda Meaney) only wishes for happiness while eclectic Andie, realizing that the many family conversations will "all mean nothing in a hundred years," has terrific stage timing.

The time period (the play begins in 1939) was one of high anxiety and it sometimes feels as if everyone is on edge. Every so often, Taylor's dialogue reminds observers that this is a most trepidatious era. The playwright gives a neat sense of what it must have been like as working class individuals faced uncertainty. Otherwise, intra-family relationships come to the fore amid a mixture of semi-seriousness and clever humor. Romances involving Helen and Joyce assume center stage even as these are less than ideal. Meany's Helen, with whom theatergoers sympathize, is a woman who is sensitive but not sappy. It is easy to empathize with her decent soul and hope, along with her, that she is not alone. It is also fun to anticipate one of Richard Kline's snappy lines as Andie. Taylor's work comes to a rousing conclusion in a group sing of "Roll Out the Barrel."

Kennedy's facilitation around an evocative stage, designed by Kristen Robinson, is specific. The director and his actors bring us to that time at the onset of the war and beyond. That this feels like a world gone by is authentic. This production evolves as a domestic drama and a wistful one at that. The first act does include a couple of lulls while the second hour feels tighter and more cogent.

In all, And a Nightingale Sang is a genuine piece and dialect consultant Elizabeth Smith has made certain that these performers have precise accents—all to the good. It is a story of a domestic contingent during wartime, and many a sequence shows that individuals within a family, however oddly different, may maintain affection for one another.

And a Nightingale Sang continues at Westport Country Playhouse through June 27th, 2015. For tickets, call (203) 227-4177 or visit www.westportplayhouse.org.

Photo: Carol Rosegg

- Fred Sokol