Talley's Folly - I Tally it a 7

Talley's Folly @ the Roundabout Theatre is a two character play by Lanford Wilson which garnered him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama & 3 Obies.  The entire play takes place on the evening of July 4, 1944, with one stage set:  an old boathouse on a farm in Missouri.  The two talented actors are rekindling a courtship ignited the previous summer.  Matt Friedman (Danny Burstein) is an Jewish immigrant tax accountant who returns from St. Louis to profess his love to Sally Talley (Sarah Paulson) a "gentile" "old maid" who works p/t as a nurses' aide for wounded vets.  Sally's family is an Anti-semetic brood that prefer shooting Matt rather than permit Sally to associate with him.  Matt & Sally make for an odd couple.  Nonetheless, they are like fuel for a car.  Matt tells Sally when she belittles his car, "castigate a man's car, castigates the man."  The play begins with Matt addressing the audience directly; suspending any sense of reality.  I didn't care for this gimmick and I loathed the redux of his banter in fast forward for "late comers."  However, there was much I liked in their verbal fencing, or as Matt referred to it "a waltz, everything is a waltz."  Matt & Sally danced around each other, both afraid to be vulnerable & fearful of losing their last chance for happiness.  "People are like eggs, they go around careful not to bang up against each other."  In the con column:  the dialogue was relentless, their deep rooted secrets anti-climatic, the humor droll.  In the pro column:  the writing was brilliant (albeit droning,) great acting and a symbiotic relationship of two misfits that was endearing.  My tally ends up in the plus column, but not by much.