Award-Winning ‘Boy’

The John Drew Theater Lab will present a free, fully staged performance by Tandy Cronyn of Simon Bent’s play “The Tall Boy” on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The play, which won best adaptation at the United Solo Theatre Festival last year, was adapted from a short story by Kay Boyle.

At the center of the play is Annie, the American matron of a Bavarian displaced persons camp for children after World War II, enacting the stories of three teenage boys from the camp who had become mascots of American Army units during the war’s last years.

Ms. Cronyn not only plays Annie, but also the three young men, whose longing to go to America is thwarted. The actress sometimes speaks in the characters’ voices, at other times narrates the short story’s descriptive prose.

The one-woman play developed as a collaboration involving Ms. Cronyn, Mr. Bent, and David Hammond, a theater director. The actress, the daughter of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, has said, “This story got into my DNA and I knew I had to give it life. I’ve been happy to see all stages of its development.”