Pictured From Fabulation.
Emma
Playwright: Stephen Fedo, after Jane Austen
At: Reverie Theatre at Breadline
Phone: ( 312 ) 409-6501; $15
Runs through: April 30
By Jonathan Abarbanel
The Reverie adaptation of Emma is like the country cousin of good breeding but straitened circumstances that always appears in a Jane Austen novel. Emma pales beside the Northlight production of Pride and Prejudice earlier this theater season, at least with regard to sets, costumes and spectacle. Inevitably, however, the cousin turns out to be of sound character, great heart and firm affection—and so it is with Reverie's Emma.
The plot of Austen's second-to-last completed novel ( having died in 1817 at the age of 41 ) follows her own dictum to write about '3 or 4 families in a Country Village,' a formula she followed less strictly in Pride and Prejudice. As usual, an exceptional young woman is at the center, Emma Woodhouse. Before she can recognize her true love, her pride must be chastised and her meddling nature—too apt to make assumptions about other peoples' interests—must be amended. Austen, an astute social observer and social satirist, penned romantic comedies of manners very adaptable for the stage, if you can abbreviate them without losing Austen's sharp and lively voice.
This admirable world premiere by Stephen Fedo comes close to the mark, but needs a little more work. Fedo is a principal actor ( playing Emma's kindly but neurasthenic father ) , so it's doubtful he spent much rehearsal time revising the script. Act I is too long. No major cuts are needed, just small trims to shorten it by 12-15 minutes and increase tension. Act II is just the right length and accelerates nicely. Next, either as adapted or staged, the piece could use a bit more comedy. Thirdly—and most importantly—Fedo needs to build up Emma's eventual romantic interest, George Knightley. He's a constant presence in Act I but lacks personality and character, achieving dimensionality only in Act II. We must find him interesting sooner. His interaction with Emma as her mirror and occasional moral compass must begin earlier.
Director Chris Pomeroy is blessed with a strong ensemble, with bright Jenny Connell at its center as Emma. As Knightley, Patrick Blashill is affable and keenly observant, although a bit bland ( in part because of script, as already mentioned ) . Other principals and ensemble members—13 in all and no weak links—have the assurance and command of veteran players, belying their general youthfulness.
Scenic designer Justin Barisonek does much with little: two Federal blue walls, white crown moldings, an oak-look floor and four benches with turned legs suggest the late Georgian period with simple style, aided by Julian Pike's varied lighting. Jana Anderson's colorful costumes sufficiently suggest period pattern and style without being absolutely accurate, which would be costly for a small troupe. Like an Austen cousin, she makes a good show on limited means, as does Emma altogether.
Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine
Playwright: Lynn Nottage
At: Next Theatre at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes Street,
Evanston
Phone: ( 847 ) 475-1875; $20-$35
Runs through: May 7
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
Fourteen years before we meet our heroine, Miss Sharona Watkins of the Brooklyn Projects reinvented herself to become Ms. Undine Barnes Calles, high-powered public relations factotum to the rich and famous—a well-traveled path in the annals of upward mobility, both literary ( think Becky Sharp ) and historical ( think Helen Gurley Brown ) . But when her fortune-hunting Argentine husband leaves her penniless and—since Undine is a woman of color—pregnant, her only recourse is to return to her estranged family and everything that she left behind.
In real life, Undine's predicament would offer many more solutions than the Victorian road-to-ruin meted her by author Lynn Nottage, but this is a parable, not a sociodrama. After our prodigal daughter surveys what her fate might have been if she hadn't run away from home—and Nottage is refreshingly unbiased in her assessment of the options—she comes to a better appreciation of her choices.
Our fable is curiously unfinished, however. The play ends with the errant spouse apprehended and Undine having her baby with the supportive encouragement of a humble would-be helpmeet—but NOW what? Will Undine recover her money? Will she rebuild her career in a location sufficiently distant from her kinfolk as to not require her disclaiming them altogether? Will she renounce the glamorous life for the love of a Simple Good Man? Will she use birth control, for chrissakes?
Audiences for Evanston's Next Theatre may—or may not—have the sociological expertise to evaluate the accuracy of Nottage's portraiture, and Jason Loewith's situation-comedy direction is unlikely to promote the examination deserved by her satirical observations ( a college professor who recounts how academic pressures drove him to a crack habit, an Afrocentric war veteran enamored of uniformed service, a grandmother who medicates herself on street-grade heroin ) . But even though the play is smarter than we suspect, a protean seven-member ensemble scampering through 35 roles to spur Jacqueline Williams's Everywoman on her odyssey deliver enough sprightly humor and engaging charm to send us home as satisfied as if we hadn't learned a thing.
My Thing of Love
Playwright: Alexandra Gersten
At: Infamous Commonwealth at Raven Theatre
Phone: ( 312 ) 458-9780; $15
Runs through: May 7
By Jonathan Abarbanel
We've been together 10 years. Last week, when I had a night off from theater, my partner came home from work 45 minutes late, saw me preparing dinner without asking if he could help and failed to set the table. After dinner, when I suggested washing the few dishes from the simple meal, he said 'I'll do them tomorrow,' which often means three or four days. He finally washed them ( I dried ) , taking all of five minutes and resenting every moment. This has become an often-repeated pattern of indifference which I resent, but this time I said nothing.
If you understand the dynamic described above, and that it can cut both ways, you'll understand the pointed and pithy comedy of My Thing of Love. Relationships often put people between a rock and a hard place in many regards, and marriage with children even more so. After nearly 10 years of marriage and two kids, Elly and Jack take each other for granted, resent each other for doing so and feel helplessly trapped. When Jack has an affair with a younger woman ( a capable and attractive Erica Peregrine ) —who shows up in Elly's kitchen—Elly fights back with passionately mordant verbal attacks and a take-no-prisoners attitude. She sends the lover packing and likewise a ditzy school guidance counselor, the stupefyingly absurd representative of customary social order ( Joseph Alaimo in a very funny turn ) . Ultimately, however, she cannot send Jack packing, for the fear of being alone is greater than Jack's emotional betrayal, and Elly understands that she herself—just a bit of a ballbuster—is not guiltless. 'I don't even know what I'm defending anymore,' she says.
My Thing of Love received a definitive world premiere production featuring Laurie Metcalf and Tom Irwin in 1991 at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, a show many theatergoers remember. Although not as brilliant as the original, Infamous Commonwealth need not be embarrassed by comparisons. Their sins of commission are minor, but sins of omission are more serious, chiefly the absence of a deeper subtext the play demands between Jack and Elly. Under director Genevieve Thompson, the pauses are not always given the time they need to become pregnant, pointed or ironic. The play's weariness, sadness, panic and comic pathos cannot be hurried, and certain beats need to be slowed down. Also, the relatively youthful company simply may lack the experience in life and theater to delve more deeply.
My Thing of Love is brief but meaty. Jennifer Mathews has a fine edge as desperate housewife Elly and Craig C. Thompson is good as the baldly manipulative Jack. They certainly would be at home on Wisteria Lane. Still, I'd love to see them tackle these roles a few years on.
