‘Humble’ cast
Patty Duke doesn’t actually need, in any practical sense, to appear in “Humble Boy” with the Actor’s Repertory Theatre. She’s had plenty of high-profile Hollywood jobs, beginning with “The Miracle Worker,” her Oscar-winning performance in 1962.
Yet she’s doing “Humble Boy” – which opens for previews tonight – because this small, professional, high-quality Spokane troupe gives her something that Hollywood hasn’t always: the chance to concentrate strictly on the art of acting.
“It’s so refreshing to go to work and realize we are actually doing the work,” Duke said by phone from her Coeur d’Alene home. “There are no egos.”
She is especially enamored of director Michael Weaver.
“Michael Weaver sets a tone for his rehearsal that allows you to go outside your comfort zone and be safe,” said Duke, who is known to many of her Coeur d’Alene neighbors by her real name, Anna Pearce. “It says to me, ‘Oh my God, it doesn’t have to be all stress and grief!’ “
Not that she has anything against Hollywood, where she has made more than 100 films and TV movies. But her idea of happiness is being able to stretch herself as an artist while staying right here at home.
“I love it here and now I find that I can have an even better creative life here,” said Duke.
She was taken with “Humble Boy,” a 2001 British comedy by Charlotte Jones, as soon as she read it.
“Oh my God, it’s hysterical,” said Duke. “It is outrageously funny.
“One of the problems during rehearsals is that while trying to learn my lines, I would allow myself to get distracted by how funny it is. Everybody else was doing their part, and I’m laughing.”
Theater critic Charles Spencer of London’s Daily Telegraph called it “rich, original, intelligent, funny and touching, bursting with ideas and characters that you come to care about deeply.”
“Humble Boy” is about Flora Humble, a vain, hard-hearted mother of an astrophysicist son. When he returns to her Cotswold garden for a visit, the family secrets start to spill out.
Flora was played by Diana Rigg in London and Blair Brown in New York, and now Duke.
“I found the role really attractive because on the surface, she seems to be this cold, unfeeling, the-world-is-only-about-her kind of lady,” said Duke. “She doesn’t completely reform, but she is finally able to gain some insights.”
The New York Times reviewer compared the character to Joan Collins in “Dynasty” – English garden variety.
“She’s living in a very small town, a very repressed lifestyle,” said Duke. “She has delusions of being Princess Di. We don’t state that in the play, but she just thinks she is very grand and all of these others around her are not.”
The play has ambitions far beyond inducing laughter. Spencer called it a modern reworking of the Hamlet story; Duke said one of the play’s themes involves quantum physics.
“Humble Boy” won a raft of British theater awards, including the Critic’s Circle Best New Play Award and the People’s Choice Best New Play Award.
This play fits nicely with Duke’s recent forays into theatrical art at the University of Idaho. She has been teaching drama on the Moscow campus and last summer performed a workshop version there of a one-woman play, “Billion Dollar Baby,” by Julie Jensen.
Duke plans to continue teaching and developing that show this summer.
“First of all, to be noticed in the world of academe is a personal thrill for me,” said Duke. “And to be awakened to the creativity – those folks could go to New York anytime they want. They’re just too smart.”
She is also thrilled with the creativity in the cast of “Humble Boy,” which features Carter J. Davis as the son. Other cast members include Patrick Treadway, Therese Diekhans, J.P. O’Shaughnessy and Jane May.
Duke said “their skills are off the charts.” However, she will probably be the only cast member with a fan club in attendance.
Bill Jankowski, president of the Official Patty Duke Fan Club, will be flying in from Philadelphia and at least one more member will be flying in from New York.
Makes it hard to stay humble, doesn’t it?