When you go to this show, be prepared to laugh. Helen (Liz Weber) and her best friend Zona (Carol Randolph) may be north of 70, but their talent for life will charm you completely.
‘Helen on Wheels’ is a lovely play about real people, and its gentle humor provides the structure for a very funny lesson on living your life, and no one else’s, no matter how old you are.
The show starts with a jailbreak—Zona is breaking Helen out of the town jail with the blowtorch that Helen gave her for her last birthday. Naturally, these women also believe in safety and Zona has her welder’s helmet and heavy gloves on. From there, we’re off to the races.
This is the D.C. area premiere of ‘Helen on Wheels’ and this cast does it full justice. Helen’s husband died two years ago, and her son, Nelson, who lives 31 miles away in Tulsa, wants her to move into a home there. Helen isn’t having any of that nonsense—the town she lives in was founded by her husband’s ancestor and she has deep roots. These roots sustain her because, underneath all the zaniness, Helen is grieving for her husband still.
But she’s found a way to keep in touch with him—through a microwave in her living room. And why not? As Zona gently explains to Nelson (Nicholas Allen), grieving is a process and you live through it however you do and however long it takes.
As the story winds through a few days in the life of Helen and Zona and their sons and a new man in town—in whom Helen initially has zero interest—you sort of feel as if you’re sitting on the front porch with them, eavesdropping on the weird and wonderful ordinary days.
This cast is uniformly lovely in their roles. As Helen, Weber tackles the role with glee and veiled grief—it’s rarely overt, but it colors everything. Allen (as her son Nelson) perfectly embodies someone from a younger generation that worries about Mom getting frail, but doesn’t really see her strengths, and doesn’t realize that if she were to leave her town, she would indeed become frail.
Terence Heffernan as Seth the sheriff has great comedic timing, particularly in the smaller moments (such as when he burns his tongue on a cup of Earl Grey) that elevate the character to more than a Barney Fife clone. Bill Hurlbut as Elmer, the new man in town, comes in relatively late, but he uses his time to portray a dignified man who spies the feisty Helen and is smitten and is willing to bet on love late in life.
But it’s Carol Randolph as Zona who steals the show. She may be Helen’s sidekick, but she uses straight from left field logic to wrap her friend in a protective and loose hold until Helen is ready to look for some joy in her life again. It’s a memorable performance.
‘Helen on Wheels’ is written by Cricket Daniel; and for such a young woman, she has a lovely way of portraying older characters as vital and fun and generous and grumpy and needy and determined and everything in between; she doesn’t box them in.
The play is directed with a light touch by Kelsey Yudice (who also did the costume design), and Alison Mark provides the set design and some slyly whimsical touches.
‘Helen on Wheels’ is a lovely play about real people, and its gentle humor provides the structure for a very funny lesson on living your life, and no one else’s, no matter how old you are.
Advisory: Language, posturing with a rifle.
Running Time: One hour and 40 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.
‘Helen on Wheels’ runs through October 6, 2019, at Best Medicine Rep, Lakeforest Mall, Second Floor, Gaithersburg, MD. For more information, please click here.
