Burstyn hits the high spots

Ellen Burstyn’s solo vehicle at the Old Globe Theatre should be called “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells Condensed Versions of the Juiciest Parts of the Bestselling Novel.”

Instead, it has retained the title of its source material, Allan Gurganus’ “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.”

The script for Martin Tahse’s stage adaptation, at the Old Globe, has only 49 pages. Gurganus’ tome had 718 pages in its first edition, published in 1989, using much smaller type than does the unpublished play script.

Still, Gurganus’ stories are so strong and Burstyn proves such an adept storyteller that Tahse’s Classics Illustrated-style edition becomes an engaging experience, both funny and sad.

Burstyn is the only person on stage. At first this may seem inappropriate for Gurganus’ sprawling narrative, which crisscrosses among events that took place over more than a century.

As in the book, however, the stories are told from the perspective of Lucy Marsden, 99, whose late husband Willie Marsden was the last surviving soldier from the Civil War. When she speaks of events before her own time, she’s telling stories that have been handed down to her by others, but she adds sprightly commentary of her own.

Any stage adaptation that tried to embody all of the characters, in the form of individual actors, might well feel just as sketchy as the current solo version or even more so. With one actor, our attention is at least easily focused.

In Tahse’s script, Lucy tells her stories to an audience at a benefit for the retirement home where she lives -- as opposed to the book, in which she talks to a young researcher. This alteration helps translate the script into the very public arena of the theater. Lucy sporadically asks for some form of audible confirmation that the audience understands what’s saying. She usually gets what she asks for.

Following Tahse’s request, Burstyn -- who is 70 -- is not made up to look 99. Although she alternates between standing and using a wheelchair, she looks and moves more like a 70-year-old than a 99-year-old, the better to enhance the tales from 1900. That’s when she was married to Willie at the age of 15, when he was a grizzled 50.

Directed by Don Scardino, Burstyn speaks with a soft Southern inflection. She becomes more animated in emotional moments, and she carefully deepens her voice when she quotes her husband or Castalia, a former Marsden slave of her husband’s generation who became the paid family housekeeper after the war.

But befitting a woman of Lucy’s age and gentility, Burstyn never takes her performance over the top -- or over the line that separates a skilled storyteller from an actor who appears to be literally transformed. In contrast to the experiences of reading the novel or seeing the 1994 TV miniseries -- which used a large cast, including two women playing Lucy -- we never forget that Lucy is recalling events from a distance.

The evocation of the earlier eras is helped considerably, however, by a series of large projections by Wendall K. Harrington onto the white cinder block wall of the room in the retirement home where Lucy is telling her stories. The projections provide images not only of the landscape but also of some of the central characters, including the younger Lucy and Castalia and a photo of the older Willie Marsden that, we are told, appeared on the cover of Liberty magazine (actually, he looks rather lean, which somewhat contradicts the words that describe him).

Likewise, Peter Fitzgerald’s sound and Kenneth Posner’s lighting help shape a show far beyond the professionalism of most retirement home benefits.

Here’s hoping that Burstyn’s stellar turn will inspire more readers to explore the much greater depths of the novel it- self.

*

‘Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All’

Where: Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego

When: Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.

Ends: March 8

Price: $19-$50

Contact: (619) 239-2255

Running Time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

Ellen Burstyn...Lucy Marsden

Adapted by Martin Tahse from the novel by Allan Gurganus. Directed by Don Scardino. Set by Allen Moyer. Costumes by Jane Greenwood. Lighting by Kenneth Posner. Sound by Peter Fitzgerald. Projections by Wendall K. Harrington. Production stage manager Dianne Trulock.