Funky Little Theater shifts to Palmer Lake for ‘Last Train to Nibroc’

Funky Little Theater Company, located in Colorado Springs, visits their second home in Palmer Lake to stage an engaging production of Last Train to Nibroc.

The play, by Arlene Hutton, has been compared to the work of Thornton Wilder and Horton Foote. It embraces an Americana aesthetic as it follows the hit-and-miss romance of Raleigh (Owen Milks) and May (Celeste Woody), who meet on a cross-country, east-bound train that carries the bodies of recently deceased Nathaniel West and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Both have disappointments, May in love, Raleigh in ambition.  They learn they are from neighboring Kentucky towns, but this commonality doesn’t erase their many differences. May is straight-arrow religious, who reads only for inspiration, Raleigh likes a good story. Raleigh thinks the Nibroc festival, an annual local street carnival, is harmless fun. May thinks it’s a setting for wanton behavior. May claims to have plans to be a missionary, although the plans aren’t very specific. Raleigh, inspired by West and Fitzgerald, hopes to make his fortune in New York as a writer.

Two more meetings of the characters over a period of time reveal how they have tried but failed to connect. Finally, however, they come to an understanding that unexpectedly nods to May’s missionary impulses and promises some fulfillment of Raleigh’s literary ambitions.

A charming story

It’s a charming piece filled with humor and pathos. We feel for the two as they stumble over themselves trying to find and be found. While it has a sentimental overlay, the piece also asks some pointed questions about ambition and how we find our true calling.

Director Ray Brown — a “Best of the Springs” award winner — sets a good pace. The action moves along but doesn’t feel rushed. Milks and Woody duet well together. In the first scene, for example, Raleigh and May steal sideways at each other several times. Their awkwardness is perfectly timed and feels completely natural.

Both Milks and Woody are veterans of Funky and bring energy and poise to their parts. The part of May, however, poses difficulties that Woody and director Brown don’t quite overcome. The character is abrasive even hostile through nearly two-thirds of the play. For most of the play, we don’t see the vulnerability lurking underneath May’s en garde approach to a potential new love. It’s hard to feel engaged with her and one wonders what Raleigh sees in her to make him so persistent.

The Palmer Lake Town Hall makes for a cozy theatre space, with a simple scenic design by Nancy Hankin and Chris Medina that serves the piece well. The opening set of a train car rotates to become the front of May’s house for the last scene. A park bench and a beautifully painted backdrop of a park creates the Nibroc festival.

Sound design elements, such as the clickety-clack of the train and the carnival noises of the Nibrock festival, makes subtle contributions.

In the opening scene, the costume designs — Raleigh in uniform, May in a suit and netted hat — effectively set a World War II time period. The period feel is less vivid in the next two scenes, however. May, in particular, wears more modern attire.

The best comment on the production may be how quickly the 90-minute running time seems to pass. There’s never a dull moment and the conclusion, for Raleigh, May and the audience is quite satisfying.