Playwright: J.M. Barrie
At: Rogue Theater Company at the Side Studio, 1520 W. Jarvis Ave.
Phone: ( 773 ) 450-0591; $12
Runs through: Feb. 5
Quality Street is a Regency Romp in dire need of a bigger budget. The Rogue Theater Company does not lack for talent and enthusiasm, but Austen/Thackeray/Heyer devotees anticipating sumptuous gowns, candy-box rooms and a wealth of frivolous furbelows will have to rely on their imaginations—always a handy playgoing accessory, but mandatory equipment for this storefront production tucked into a remote corner of East Rogers Park.
To be sure, genteel poverty is quite romantic, reminding us that while Love may Conquer All, the obstructive power of economics is not to be underestimated. Our plot revolves around Miss Phoebe Throstle, who believes—along with her elder sister, Susan—that the dashing Valentine Brown will soon propose marriage. Not only does he neglect to do so before enlisting in the army, but his financial advice to her family plunges them into near-bankruptcy. Ten years pass, Valentine returns chastened by his wartime experience. But not until after Phoebe, who has also suffered in his absence, employs the old mistaken-identity ruse do the facts emerge that will free the lovers.
Director Dan Foss addresses the physical limitations imposed on his production through the device of staging it in 'rehearsal dress' ( cf. the John Gielgud-Richard Burton Hamlet ) , with a length of lace representing a ball gown, an afghan thrown over a couch designating the room's decor and a campsite blanket standing in for a voluminous cloak. Additional orientation is supplied by a narrator—ostensibly the author, played with aplomb by Nate White—who locates us preceding each of the play's four acts, here truncated into a bare 90 intermissionless minutes.
But scenery and costumes are not mere decorations. They are our first clues to an individual's character, status and relationships. And at the preview performance I attended, their loss made for a comprehension time always just a second or two behind the onstage action, much as the Side Studio's cavernlike acoustics impeded our appreciation of J.M. Barrie's witty dialogue and Martin Aistrope's superlative dialects. Whatever their shortcomings this time, however, the Rogue ensemble's industry under conditions unseen since the passing of the legendary Café Voltaire is certainly to be commended.