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Allan Gurganus Civil War Novel
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 Allan Gurganus |
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, an award-winning novel by Yaddo writer Allan Gurganus, has debuted as a stage production in San Diego featuring Tony and Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn.
Published in 1989, Oldest Living Confederate Tells All won the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was hailed by critics as "extraordinary," "compelling," and "wise." Readers fell in love with the book's heroine, 99-year-old Lucy Marsden, a master storyteller who, in 1900 at age 15, wed an eccentric, grizzled 50-year-old former captain in the Confederate army.
Burstyn is the sole performer in the premiere stage version of the story, which is told from the perspective of Marsden, whose late husband was the last surviving soldier from the Civil War. When she speaks of events before her own time, she's telling stories that have been handed down to her by others, but she spices it up with lively commentary of her own. In the play, Marsden tells her stories to an audience at a benefit for the retirement home where she lives (in the book she talks to a young researcher).
The play has earned praise in San Diego from reviewers and audiences alike. The Los Angeles Times called Burstyn an "adept storyteller," credited her with "literally transforming" herself into Lucy Marsden, and expressed hope that Burstyn's "stellar" performance will "inspire more readers to explore the much greater depths of the novel itself."
Gurganus is a novelist and short story writer whose work has been translated into 12 languages. He has held several residencies at Yaddo, the last in 2002, and has served on Yaddo's board for more than 20 years. His collection of stories and novellas, White People, was a Pen-Faulkner finalist and was awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Other Gurganus works include the novel Plays Well With Others, which was nominated for the Lambda Literary Award, and a collection of novellas, The Practical Heart. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All previously was made into a 1994 television mini-series starring Donald Sutherland, Diane Lane, and Cicely Tyson. Gurganus lives in his native North Carolina.
The stage production of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All continues through March 8 at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park in San Diego. For ticket information, call 619.239.2255 or visit www.oldglobe.org.
