Hepburn's life story makes for poignant 'Tea'

Playing a world-famous actress — especially one as demanding and distinctive as the great Katharine Hepburn — is a daunting task indeed.

If you fail to capture the well-known voice and mannerisms, your performance will ring false. Go too far, however, and you sacrifice the story to mere mimicry.

In First Folio Theatre's staging of the one-woman show “Tea at Five,” Melissa Carlson walks that line beautifully. Her take on Hepburn draws on a host of emotions — and a surprising store of vulnerability — while still making quite clear why Hepburn was once dubbed “Katharine of Arrogance.”

Based on Hepburn's memoir, Matthew Lombardo's “Tea at Five” spotlights two pivotal periods in the actress' long and fascinating life. Both are set at her home in Fenwick, Conn., brought to life in designer Angela Miller's lush, detail-packed set (updated between acts to reflect the passage of time).

Act I opens in September 1938. The Oscar-winning actress has retreated from Hollywood after being labeled “box office poison” following a series of film flops. She's anxiously awaiting a call from her agent to find out if she has nabbed the career-saving role of Scarlett O'Hara in “Gone With the Wind.” Needless to say, that one doesn't go her way. And Hepburn doesn't mince words once she learns she has lost the role to “Vivien who?” — an unknown and a Brit to boot.

The action, such that it is, revolves around Hepburn taking a series of phone calls, sipping tea and talking about her past. While pacing the stage or settling back in her sofa, Carlson as Hepburn shares tales of her intellectual parents, her first foray onto the stage and her brief marriage to a man she still considers a dear friend. “Luddy was a nice man,” she says. “And no nice man should ever marry an actress.”

Carlson shows why, and she's at her best capturing this period of Hepburn's life. She confidently embodies Hepburn's burning ambition and ahead-of-her-time independence. But she also reveals the vulnerability beneath Hepburn's gruff exterior, showing us a woman still pained by the death of her beloved brother and haunted by the need for her father's approval.

The second half finds the actress in February 1983. By this time, Hepburn's trademark voice has grown shaky and her body betrays the effects of Parkinson's. Old age has stripped Hepburn of her glamour, but not of her wit.

The now-elderly Hepburn continues to talk about her family, her career and, now, the love of her life: the late Spencer Tracy. She describes him as her “weakness,” and it is at times difficult to understand how a woman like Hepburn would have stood by him through years of alcoholism and verbal abuse.

In one of the most poignant moments, Carlson as Hepburn painfully relates how the actress contacted Tracy's wife after his death and was stung by Louise Tracy's dismissive response: “I thought you were a rumor.”

Through it all, she says, work was her “salvation.” “Tea at Five,” directed by Alison C. Vesely, drives that point home. While the play delves into several painful chapters in Hepburn's life, it does so with great humor and enduring respect.

At one point, Hepburn reveals that she loved happy endings. So, you have to wonder, did she get hers?

“Tea at Five”

★ ★ ★

<b>Location: </b>First Folio Theatre at Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st Street and Route 83, Oak Brook, (630) 986-8067 or <a href="http://www.firstfolio.org" target="_blank">firstfolio.org</a>

<b>Showtimes: </b>8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday; additional performances at 4 p.m. Oct. 8 and 15 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9 and 16. Through Oct. 16.

<b>Running time: </b>Two hours including intermission

<b>Tickets: </b>$20-$37

<b>Parking: </b>Free lot

<b>Rating: </b>For teens and adults