Little Foxes return to The Guild Theatre, Rockdale

The Little Foxes, first performed on Broadway in 1939 and by the guild in 1979, transports the audience back to the 1900s but its themes are still uniquely modern.

It is the year 1900 in a small town in Alabama where the ruthless siblings of the Hubbard family are attempting to negotiate a lucrative deal. If successful, they will bring northern manufacturing to their southern cotton fields and accumulate far greater wealth than they already have.

The brothers Oscar (Vincent O’Neill) and Benjamin (Greg Kenyon), along with their sister Regina (Glenda Kenyon), will stop at nothing to obtain the necessary funds to secure their plan. As a result, collateral damage accumulates in the lives and relationships around them.

Greg and Glenda are off-stage husband and wife and are sought-after actors in their own right, who use their vast experience to bring to life the fascinatingly corrupt siblings in all their arrogant and avaricious glory.

Watching it all take place are their servants who witness the blind ambition, cruelty and arrogance first hand. Addie, a servant, says “there are people who eat the earth and other people who stand around and watch them do it.” This observation ties in with the title – inspired by the Old Testament’s Song of Solomon quote – “take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: our vines have tender grapes.”

Glenda plays the wicked role of Regina, the famous villainess, the role that saw Elizabeth Taylor’s stage debut and was immortalised by legendary actress Bette Davis in the film version.

Director Bill Ayers was drawn to the play by the fact that it was based on the lives of actual people. Writer Lillian Hellman was born into such a dynasty in that her southern relatives mirrored many of the attributes of the Hubbard family.

But, as Ayers notes, such business attitudes were not confined to the turn of the 20^th century. Instead, it was a sign of things to come in the growing, prospering United States of America.

Ayers said it was relatively easy to put together the large and accomplished cast, with them drawn by the excellent script. Hellman writes a fascinating and searingly dramatic plot, enhanced by the wry observations of the servants contrasting with the arrogant and conniving dialogue of the Hubbard clan.