Playwright: Charlotte Thompson
and Kate Douglas Wiggin
At: Theatre-Hikes at Morton Arboretum,
4100 Route 53, Lisle
Phone: 630-968-0074; $19-$22
Runs through: July 27
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
The idea of hiking through the great outdoors in-between scenes from a play sounds like a fun theatrical experience. So it's unfortunate that Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is my first exposure to Theatre-Hikes.
For years Theatre-Hikes has lured audiences to places like Lisle's Morton Arboretum and Chicago's North Park Village Nature Center to combine the beauty of nature with drama. Alas, Theatre-Hikes production of Sunnybrook Farm is not worth the gas it takes to drive out to see it.
Though pitched at small kids, I wouldn't blame them if they got bored with Sunnybrook Farm, a creaky 1909 stage adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggin's 1903 children's novel.
Similar in subject matter to Pollyanna, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm is about the rambunctious young Rebecca, who has an uplifting effect on her chilly spinster aunts and the entire quiet Maine town of Riverboro. But of the two, I'd rather see Pollyanna since it has the galvanizing event of the bazaar plus a near-tragic ending that is lacking in the meandering Sunnybrook Farm.
One major problem with this adaptation by Wiggin and Charlotte Thompson is that most of the conflict is downplayed so the play becomes a series of so-so vignettes of kids at play or gossiping adults. Aside from the first fight Rebecca has with her aunt ( which prompts her to run away ) , there is very little dramatic action to motivate you to hike to each subsequent scene to find out what happens.
Even with a top-notch cast, this Sunnybrook Farm would be slow going. So I'm sad to report that Theatre-Hikes' Sunnybrook Farm cast under director Frank Farrell is just adequate.
It seems more effort was made to get the cast to learn their odd New England accents than to play scenes moment to moment with honest emotion. So many lines are shakily delivered or arrive with a delayed reaction that you never believe the actors as the characters they're playing ( particularly in the case of the older actors ) .
The younger actors don't seem to have it much easier, since these college-age performers have to play small kids with squeaky and excitable voices ( they do an admirable, if uphill job anyway ) . Even an actor like Chris Kordys ( who was so genuine and memorable as C.B. in Rubicon Theatre Project's Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead ) seems stymied by the material.
If anything, Sunnybrook Farm offers a pleasant, if bland day outdoors. No doubt Theatre-Hikes' other offerings like The Taming of the Shrew or the bike-hike of Key Exchange this summer would have been a better bet. Just remember to bring bug spray and plenty of sunscreen.