Dad, daughter seek closure

When the title character in God's Daughter returns home to an ailing father, old wounds and conflicting beliefs threaten to keep them estranged.

By JOHN FLEMING

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 2000

CLEARWATER -- When Cori Archer makes her first visit back home in 15 years, her father doesn't exactly roll out the welcome mat.

"Get out of this house!" Jeb Archer thunders when his daughter steps inside the front door of her childhood home in the small Florida town of Jackson.

Thus commences God's Daughter, a play by Barton Bishop selected by the sixth annual Florida Playwright's Process to be given its premiere in Studio One of Ruth Eckerd Hall.

The Archers are estranged for obvious reasons. Cori (Barbara Eaker) is a defrocked religion reporter for the Washington Post and author of a God-debunking book. Jeb (Ron Sommer) is a Southern Baptist preacher who used to lull his little girl to sleep with Bible stories.

Belief systems aside, another conflict divides father and daughter, one straight out of the episode in Death of a Salesman in which Biff stumbles on Willy with his floozy in a Boston hotel. When Jeb's first wife and Cori's mother, Temperance, was dying of cancer, Jeb had a fling with Winnie Sutherlin. One night, when she was 14, Cori caught Jeb and Winnie (Marie Hyman) together and never forgave them.

Now it's reconciliation time. Jeb and Winnie have been married six years, but she needs help with him because he has Alzheimer's disease. "He claims there are squirrels and Lutherans trying to kill him," she says.

So Winnie calls in Cori, who is at a turning point in her life. She was canned by the Post, ostensibly because of her unbuttoned style ("You're the Howard Stern of religious rhetoric," says her bearded, ponytailed editor, played by John Snell in one of several roles), but more likely because she has been drinking heavily and slept with an intern.

Directed by Pam Yado, God's Daughter has strong performances by Sommer and especially Eaker, playing an avenging she-devil with sexy relish. The two have a touching scene together near the end in which Jeb's illness falls away and he is lucid.

But much of the play is predictable. At one point, Cori declares that "people are so obsessed with closure" -- obviously a pet theme of the playwright -- but then the plot takes a couple of improbable turns toward closure that would fit right into a made-for-TV weeper.

Cori's transformation from coldhearted cynicism to a degree of acceptance is awfully convenient. Jeb tapes together the ripped-up pages of Cori's first novel in symbolic amends for his harsh rejection of her. Greeting-card imagery abounds, such as the sun setting over Lake Jackson.

God's Daughter is a work in progress by a promising young writer. Bishop, a senior at Rollins College, took notes during a talkback session with the audience after Thursday's performance and said he has incorporated some suggestions from previous sessions into the play.

Theater review

God's Daughter by Barton Bishop has performances at 7:30 p.m. today and 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Studio One of Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets are $7. Call (727) 791-7400.