Abundance

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley has written a hard-hitting story of two women, each a pioneer in her own way, on the High Plains of Wyoming in the 1860s. JoBeth Williams and Amy Madigan create Macon and Bess, two mail order brides who become friends while each endures a life she did not necessarily want. The story covers 25 years of their tragic adventures and painful mishaps. JoBeth Williams makes Macon a thoroughly fascinating character while Amy Madigan gives Bess a complexity that make you want to love and pity, then hate and pity her. Gary Cole, Steven Weber, and Ed Begley, Jr., are the men in their lives, and each one is cleanly realized with vocal characterizations that in some cases make your skin crawl. This is a plainly produced but undeniably satisfying audio performance. M.R.E. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine