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PLOT SYNPOSES
The Little Foxes & Another Part of the Forest
Lillian Hellman set both plays in the post-Civil War southern home of the Hubbard family, and each is a powerful story of family greed and revenge. Every role is important to the story, and there are small roles and larger parts offering an opportunity for many to fit each actor’s availability. These are very complex dramas, and much of the work will be in concentrating on the emotional dynamics and complex multi-layering of the characters. Ms. Hellman has given u a great gift—incredibly well-written characters and plots—on which to build.
Set in the spring of 1900 in the small town of Bowden, Alabama in the deep South, The Little Foxes, Hellman’s most popular and most frequently revived work, was acclaimed an instant hit after a hugely successful opening night in 1939. Moral dissembling lies at the heart of this play: the Hubbard siblings steal, deceive, and plot against each other in their efforts to invest in one of the first cotton mills to industrialize the New South, a plan that stands to win them millions of dollars. Regina, temporarily cheated out of her share by her brothers, demonstrates a heart of stone and nerves of steel when her husband threatens to obstruct her from taking part in the investment. Their daughter serves as a moral standard, who matures from girl to woman as she learns of the evil that lies within the family’s machinations. Unfortunately, Alexandra may be too young to defy them. Likewise it seems is her Aunt Birdie, who drinks to anesthetize the pain of having married a bully and lost her family's plantation to her husband’s family. Regina’s husband, Horace, who is dying from an undefined cardiac ailment, is determined to live long enough to get Alexandra as far away from this familial influence as possible. The Hubbards are a family prone to deceit, caught in a cycle of revenge not unlike Greek classical tragedies. Already one of the richest families in the South, they are determined to create a larger dynasty on the toil of poor workers, who will flock to the cotton mill for its paltry wages.
This level of greed, and its origin, become even more apparent as we meet the Hubbard’s in the prequel, Another Part of the Forest. Set in the early summer of 1880 in the same house in Bowden, Alabama, twenty years before the setting of Foxes. Here we learn that the family forbears harvested their merchant profits by overcharging victims of the war for life necessities. We meet the family patriarch, Marcus Hubbard. Rich, despotic and despised, Marcus made a fortune during the Civil War by running the blockade—and worse. In his family life he is equally injurious: one son he bulldozes while the other he holds in contempt for his frailty. By Marcus's side stands his mentally deranged wife, Lavinia, his two sons Benjamin and Oscar—one a successful trickster, the other a proud illiterate, and finally, Regina, the adored daughter—amoral, conniving, and beautiful as an evil flower. Marcus, it would seem, has been on the top of the heap long enough and someone must depose him. Turning the tables on a tyrant has always made for high drama, and when Hellman puts her brilliant talents to work on such a theme the result is a play of great theatrical intensity.
The Little Foxes cast consists of 6 men and 4 women, ranging in stage-age from teens to 60s+. Another Part of the Forest has roles for 8 men and 5 women, with age ranges from 20 (or younger) to 60s+. Please see our “Character Descriptions” under the Auditions section for more character details.
For additional information, please contact Director Brett Thompson via e-mail at brett.thompson@vtmednet.org or by phone at 876-7202 (evenings until 9:00 p.m.).
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