ACE IN THE HOLE

Actress Jane Alexander finds the perfect pace to match the carefully polished prose of Updike's story from the mid-1950s. Alexander's theater training becomes most evident and entertaining when she's playing the bickering Ace and his wife, Evey. Ace has just lost his job because he scrapped his boss's car while trying to park it. Alexander punctuates her delivery with emphasis on the harsh words traded by the couple. Later, Alexander uses just the right tonal quality to portray Ace as he drifts in and out of the fantasy of being a professional basketball player. R.O. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2015]