The Orphans' Home Cycle, Part 3 -- The Story of a Family
Melissa Rose Bernardo
January 26, 2010: A cloud of sadness looms over The Story of a Family, the third and final installment in The Orphans' Home Cycle — and it's palpable even before the play's funereal beginning. It signals that Horton Foote's sublime trilogy is coming to a close; these are our last three hours with Horace Robedaux. Many of us have watched him grow from a sixth-grade dropout into a self-made businessman, from fatherless child to husband and father-to-be. Anyone who's seen Part 1: The Story of a Childhood or Part 2: The Story of a Marriage — neither of which are prerequisites for Family, by the way — has undoubtedly become extremely attached to Horace (Bill Heck, underplaying admirably), his selfless wife, Elizabeth (the lovely Maggie Lacey), his first-frosty-but-later-welcoming in-laws, the Vaughns (James DeMarse and Hallie Foote), and all their busybody kinfolk, friends, and neighbors.
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