Welcome to a day in the life of the citizenry of Watertown, Tenn., one hot summer day in 1997.

        There is ancient and recently widowed Miss Tessie, kindly spinster nurse Miss Morris, singing Italian hairdresser Lombardo (who has a roving eye), nervous, Tupperware-loving Jeanette, angry and abusive mother Melissa and her abused child Tommy Lee.

        They all gather at Barbara's Blue Kitchen, a k a Playhouse in the Park's Shelterhouse. The diner is overseen by Barbara Jean, who is half-sister to Melissa, aunt of Tommy Lee, best pen pal friend of Jeanette and in love with Lombardo.

        They are all played by Lori Fischer, who uses her 95-minute show to create character sketches and a story arc, sometimes through monologues and sometimes through (purposely) bad country music leavened by three quite good songs. (The radio at the diner is always tuned to WATR.)

        Ms. Fischer has a lot of strengths, chief among them the truth that rings through the best of her monologues, which begin at about the halfway mark of the show. She also has a sure ear for a down-home truism.

        Miss Tessie talking about her retirement-home romance; Miss Morris raging about the careless cruelties she sees committed against children every day; the hilariously romantic Lombardo; and particularly the heartbreaking Tommy Lee, give the show some much-needed emotional muscle.

        The show's superb co-star is Eric Renschler's set, a vision of blue-and-white checked perfection (from “linoleum” to tablecloths). He establishes the sense of place so well that you can almost see the invisible folks filling up the '50s-style kitchen tables, bustling in and out.

        Ms. Fischer is also a fine hand at writing and performing a country song, although almost 20 musical interludes is too much of a good thing. She could improve the show by losing 10 minutes of the weaker material.

        “How Many Pieces of My Heart” and “Blue Winged Butterfly” stand on their own, and she's come up with a heart-grabber in Tommy Lee's “Mom Doesn't Know It” that achingly depicts the realities a child feels and the fantasies to which he escapes.

        The wackier entries (“I Want My Kidney Back” and a selection of commercials, including “God Allows U-Turns”) are performed by WATR disc jockey Kurt Ziskie. (What a lucky DJ he is, to have a first-rate live back-up combo, all of them tucked behind the Blue Kitchen's counter and daily specials board.)

        Not all of Ms. Fischer's characters are equally strong. At least half of them are cliches and too many of her supporting characters have overlapping characteristics. Nor does she make us feel the heat of the summer day.

        Maybe most problematic is that it doesn't sit well that our heroine Barbara Jean is more concerned with her romance than with the nephew who is being abused in front of her eyes.

        Ms. Fischer has gone to a lot of trouble to make us care about Tommy Lee. While the show has a timeless small-town look and feel, it's set in 1997. You can't help thinking there must be interventions, even in a small Tennessee town.

        It doesn't look good when the audience is more interested in a child's welfare than his aunt is.

       Barbara's Blue Kitchen, through April 28, Playhouse in the Park Shelterhouse. 421-3888.
       

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