Stage Review: 'Willie & Esther' is funny, relevant during tough times

J.S. Tate is Willie and Precious J. Morris is Esther in "Willie & Esther" at Hattiloo Theatre.

Theater doesn’t get much more elemental than this: two actors, a bench, and a little section of painted scenery thrown in for accent.

“Willie & Esther” is indeed a stripped-down production, even for the small space at Hattiloo Theatre. It focuses on the actors themselves, playing an unlikely couple quarreling, plotting and stumbling their way into love.

J.S. Tate is Willie and Precious J. Morris is Esther in "Willie & Esther" at Hattiloo Theatre.

Written by James Graham Bronson in 1987, “Willie & Esther” opens with a scheme. Willie needs money badly. So does Esther. They happen to be standing in front of the right place for getting it.

“I been planning this for a year,” says Willie, pointing to the painted doorway clearly marked “BANK.”

Robbing a bank doesn’t thrill Esther, however. She doesn’t want to see her boyfriend of seven or eight years go to jail. She also doesn’t like his lack of vision.

As Willie sees it, there’s no need for stealing more than they need. Just enough so he can buy a thousand lottery tickets. “Then we can’t lose!” he says. “We’ll pay it back before they put our pictures up at the post office.”

Directed by Tony Anderson, a familiar face at Hattiloo, “Willie & Esther” is a spry domestic comedy about keeping a relationship alive during a crisis. And the crisis is life itself. Both are poor, undereducated, and struggling just to get by. Willie can’t pay the rent. Esther can’t get a loan to buy a car.

What’s more, they both have baggage from their past that prevents them from coming together or trusting each other.

Bronson’s characters are as over-the-top quirky as the most cartoonish guest stars of a Normal Lear sitcom. J.S. Tate plays Willie as a fast-talking codger with an endless array of facial tics. Precious J. Morris, as Esther, tries hard to convince Willie that what they need, more than a rap sheet, is a marriage license. She goes from pouting like a doll to fighting in a heartbeat.

Twenty years after its debut, the play has come around again in relevance, though comedy is its principle aim. The societal and economic problems driving Willie and Esther to crime rebounded during the current recession. Anderson has also relocated the script from Los Angeles to Memphis, changing street names and adding local references.

In a way, the duo personifies that couple commuters see arguing at bus stops. If Bronson’s play does anything more than make you laugh, it’ll make you a little more sympathetic to good people who are way down on their luck.

“Willie & Esther”

The play continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 24 at Hattiloo Theatre, 656 Marshall. Tickets are $10-$22. Call 525-0009.

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