TALLEY'S FOLLY by Lanford Wilson; a Park City Performances production directed by Ellen Graham; at the Egyptian Theatre, 328 Main St., Park City; continues Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. through Nov. 16; Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on Nov. 3 and 10. Tickets: $12 for adults, $10 for students and senior citizens and $8 for children. Box office: 649-9371 (Tuesdays-Saturdays).

Matt wants Sally to take a chance on love. Sally doesn't want anything to do with Matt. At first the mystery in "Talley's Folly" is just this: Why doesn't Matt take the hint and leave Sally alone? As the two characters talk and argue, things get more complex. Maybe Sally really doesn't want Matt to leave her alone. Maybe both have some secrets that stand in the way of love.

The play, "Talley's Folly" won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critic's Award in 1980, for playwright Langford Wilson. Though 1980 is only 16 years ago, the work definitely has a period feel to it. It's set in World War II, but it's more than just the setting that takes you back in time. The characters - their values and conversation and lives - are from another era.

The Park City Performances production of "Talley's Folly" captures the era quite nicely. Ellen Graham is the director. Barbara Borrelli is the stage manager.

Michelle Peterson is Sally and Richard Scott is Matt. He is booming, overbearing and sweet. She is prickly, spirited and willful.

So the actors are just as they should be. So is the set - designed by Marnie Sears, with lighting by Kiyono Oshiro - and sound by Matt Steinbach.

All the action - which is basically an hour and a half conversation between Matt and Sally - takes place in a decaying vine-covered gazebo, on the shores of a river near Lebanon, Mo.

It all works beautifully. You are there with them, in another time and another place, a time when fellas get sweet on gals and keep writing to them every day for a year, though they never get an answer. It's kind of an innocent place to be. You'll enjoy your evening, if you go to "Talley's Folly."

If there is anything that grates, that leaves you feeling odd instead of uplifted, the problem is in the script, not in the performance.

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I couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit manipulated. Sally didn't want to get married. She had her reasons. But then when I heard her reasons, I had to wonder if that was all there was to it.

Sure this all took place 50 years ago, but 50 years ago, even 100 years ago, weren't gals pretty honest with guys who loved them? Weren't guys pretty direct about their feelings about war and reasons for feeling the way they did?

Maybe not. The people who awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1980 certainly thought the script was honest.

- Sensitivity rating: A mild play. Suitable for audiences of all ages except that children would be bored silly by the lack of action. The two characters do nothing but talk about relationships.

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