Last Train to Nibroc

by Arlene Hutton

Truly looks like new, Autographed by the Author, no markings inside /out.

Genres: Plays, Historical Fiction, Drama, Theatre

72 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last Train to Nibroc is a blissfully sweet romantic play quite unlike the typical fare offered in theaters these days. It gives us a hero and heroine who are instantly likable and obviously meant for each other; in three scenes, it gives us a boy meets girl-boy loses girl-boy gets girl plot that would seem formulaic if such formulas were the convention nowadays. Author Arlene Hutton has put it together so deftly and so lovingly that it feels entirely fresh and, better, sublimely uplifting. Last Train to Nibroc is a triumph of simplicity and sincerity: it's a wondrously charming play, one that I wholeheartedly commend it to you.

On a crowded eastbound cross-country train from California, May and Raleigh find themselves sharing a compartment one December night in 1940. The war in Europe is very much on their minds: Raleigh has just been discharged from the service because he suffered some "fits" during training; May's fiancé, the man she journeyed two thousand miles to visit for Christmas, has changed, disappointingly, since his enrollment in the army. It turns out that Raleigh and May come from the same small town in Kentucky, a tiny place called Corbin whose claim to fame is that it is the site of an annual fair called the Nibroc Festival. (Nibroc, Raleigh explains, is Corbin spelled backwards.)

If fate were all that governed our lives, Raleigh and May's course would be easy and clear-cut; but it isn't, and so it's not. Raleigh is heading not to Kentucky but to New York City, with dreams of becoming a writer there, dreams that he feels are bolstered by the presence, on this very train, of the remains of the recently-deceased authors Nathaniel West and F. Scott Fitzgerald. May, on the other hand, says she wants to be a missionary, though we sense that she's not absolutely certain of this. In fact, the only thing she will finally agree to with any confidence is that, yes, she will allow Raleigh to take her to the Nibroc Festival next summer. Fade out.

I leave it to you to discover how Ms. Hutton ties this all up: I will only tell you that she does so in a manner that is slyly surprising and immensely satisfying.

A personal note: I will always have a special fondness for this book, because it was the first one that ever quoted a review of mine (on the back cover, where it says "NYTheatre.com"--that was me.

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

My wife and I saw the Washington Stage Guild's fine production of See Rock City, the second play in Arlene Hutton's Nibroc Trilogy. We missed WSG's performance last year of Last Train to Nibroc, so I read this to get the earlier part of the story we missed. Hutton's characters have a striking authenticity--their mannerisms, values, humor, and foibles give them depth and quickly draw the audience in.

[m · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for my playwriting class, I appreciated how short it was! Not a lot of plays written for a 90 minute window.

[Aidan McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply beautiful and very relevant. One of the best plays I’ve ever read.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The play takes a while to get into - it wasn't until the third scene that I started actively enjoying it- and some of the dialogue is kind of stilted. But it's still a remarkably subtle play, and May and Ralleigh are two very well-rendered characters. I'd give it a soft recommendation, I guess. It's a pretty low-key play, so I wouldn't say it's something you have to read, but it's pretty well-written overall.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully and subtly romantic

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful