Lee's new book, 
Theater Review
On Agate Hill lets Smith shine in solo performance
by Jim Cavener, take5 correspondent
Asheville Citizen-Times
published September 14, 2007 12:15 am
ASHEVILLE Local actress Barbara Bates Smith has made a virtual career of adapting author Lee Smith’s popular novels into one-woman shows. She’s best known for “Ivy Rowe,” based on the writer’s “Fair and Tender Ladies.” Now, Bates Smith is doing Lee Smith’s latest novel, “On Agate Hill,” at the N.C. Stage Company.
The two Smiths no relation seem made for each other. Both are Southern, born and bred.
“On Agate Hill” revolves around Molly Petree, an orphan girl, left in the desolation of the Civil War, on the remains of Agate Hill Plantation, somewhere in the North Carolina lowlands. The show opens with Molly, age 13 in 1872, then carries her for half a century, from Reconstruction to the Roaring ’20s. In the meantime Molly is rescued by a mysterious, very wealthy gentleman who sends her off to Glenwood Academy, a prestigious girls’ school, somewhere in Virginia.
Her fiery, feisty nature causes Molly to ignore socially acceptable suitors and flee to rural Wilkes County, where she teaches school, runs a country store and marries a charming, ne’er-do-well balladeer named Jacky Jarvis. Her life is not good, she loses seven children, Jacky is not faithful, and is later murdered, with Molly accused of his death. Yet, her spirit is still young and indomitable as she returns to Agate Hill to find the answers to all the quandaries of her background.
Bates Smith is a marvel as she slips from character to character: a harsh schoolmistress, a teacher and a mountain man, each identified by a tall table with a signature item on top. But, mostly she is Molly, moving from her ‘cubby-hole’ in the wrecked plantation, to a range of sites in two states over half-century’s time. There are lots of scarves and shawls, changing of over-garments to help with the transformation of characters. And it all moves seamlessly with Bates Smith’s skill and Suzanne Tinsley's deft direction.
Part of the glue that holds the tale together is the talented vocal, banjo and hammer dulcimer score by Jeff Sebens. The tunes chosen for this production are both familiar and new, but all aid in creating the mood necessary to convey the touching and often poignant story.
Jim Cavener writes on theater for the take5. E-mail JimCavener@aya.Yale.edu.
To go
“On Agate Hill”
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: N.C. Stage Company, 15 Stage Lane, across from Zambra
How much: $15.
Information: 350-9090
On the Net: www.ncstage.org