Celebrating 30 years of nostalgia

Taproot Theatre, already a company attracted to nostalgia and history in theater, celebrates its 30th anniversary season this year.

Being an auspicious year, one might imagine they'll be laying the "good-old-days" spirit on extra-thick, and one would be right. John Olive's "The Voice of the Prairie" inaugurates this season with a lovely feel-good fit of reminiscence and Americana.

Of course, layered into this throw-back to days past are certain signs of the modern times. Taproot first produced this paean to the early days of radio in 1993 with a six-person cast, but the newest incarnation makes do with just three.

If you must limit yourself to three, though, the trio chosen by director Scott Nolte couldn't have been a better fit. The cast consists of some Taproot favorites: Jeff Berryman, Marianne Savell and Timothy Hornor.

The three fill the lead roles: radio swindler Leon Schwab (Hornor), farmer-turned-radio-storyteller Davey Quinn (Berryman), and blind runaway Frankie (Savell), Davey's childhood confidante and subject of his radio stories.

They also run ensemble duty, performing quick changes of costume and character to bring Davey's spoken tales to life.

The stories delve into classic Midwestern lore — rail-riding and near-starvation in Davey's hobo youth, the emergence of young love between two misfits, the difficulty of growing up and dealing with authority.

There's also a relevance to recent events as Leon rails against the then newly formed Federal Communications Commission, which threatens to shut down his small broadcasting operation.

With the emphasis on nostalgia, sound effects and old-fashioned set-up/punch-line humor, the result doesn't stray far from the oeuvre popularized by Garrison Keillor and his radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion."

There are times in the Taproot show when one yearns for the relative unconfused comforts of a six-person cast, but they are few and fleeting. More often, one can relax into the greater comforts of compelling stories, told with skill and tenderness.