Topher Payne reimagines ‘The Attala County Garden Club’
Atlanta playwright, screenwriter Topher Payne looked back on one of his earliest plays and decided to bring it back to the stage, rewritten and re-envisioned. The supernatural Southern comedy “The Attala County Garden Club” was warmly received back in 2006, and 18 years later, Onstage Atlanta proudly presents its re-premiere.
Payne recently joined Lois Reitzes on City Lights along with actor Amanda Cucher, who performed in the original 2006 production and returns for its revival.
The play is set in central Mississippi in 1987 and follows a newlywed and brand new parent named Rose Chipley, who is the daughter of the City Garden Club president. Despite her mother’s role, Rose is rejected for membership in the City Garden Club.
“As she is licking her wounds from that dramatic social rejection, the solution arrives on her doorstep in the form of the charming and effervescent Betty Little Landrum, president of the County Garden Club, which is an offshoot created by rejects from the City Garden Club. Rose’s initial delight in being welcomed into the fold is somewhat tempered when she realizes she has joined a coven of witches who are using dark magic to get revenge on the town,” Payne said.
Both Payne and Cucher have different relationships with the characters some 18 years on, and Cucher said that perspective “comes with age.” “I think the show is tighter than it was before,” Cucher added.
Cucher no longer plays the protagonist of the story, Rose Chipley, as she did in the 2006 production, and has instead moved onto become the antagonist, an older woman named Alice Hodge. “For Rose, it’s all about acceptance and trying to find her place… And for Alice Hodge, there is an element of just trying to maintain what you’ve established,” said Cucher.
Cucher and Payne were both contemporaries of Rose when they started the first production, but they’ve grown since then. Both feel more empathy towards the menagerie of characters the populate the play, especially older antagonists like Alice. “While we have a similar story on our hands, we also have elements of morality, elements of society, that maybe weren’t included in the first production that play a large part in this production,” said Cucher.
The play opens on Sept. 13, with performances through Sept. 28. More information can be found at Topher’s website: https://www.topherpayne.com/attala-county-garden-club.
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