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Woman Around Town’s Editor Charlene Giannetti and writers for the website talk with the women and men making news in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world. Thanks to Ian Herman for his wonderful piano introduction.

Nance Williamson

Pride And Prejudice – Jubilantly Funny

12/15/2017

The purpose of a man is to love a woman,/And the purpose of a woman is to love a man,/So come on baby let’s start today, come on baby let’s play/The game of love, love, la la la la la love… sings the multi-talented, white-gowned and breech-clad cast moving with happy synchronicity. (Wayne Fontana – “Game of Love”) Yes, you’re in the right theater.

Playwright Kate Hamill, frustrated by “the dearth of complex-female centered characters and story lines …” is mining classic literature possessing that which she finds currently lacking. Pride And Prejudice, which comes to New York from The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, follows rollicking productions of Sense and Sensibility and Vanity Fair. Hamill reinterprets with irreverent glee, one foot in the appropriate era, the other is contemporary time, never eschewing pivotal plot.

Amelia Pedlow, John Tufts, Chris Thorn, Nance Williamson, Kate Hamill, and Kimberly Chatterjee

For those few of you unfamiliar with Austen’s novel, one might say it’s about the blood sport of husband hunting in Georgian England. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (Chris Thorn and Nance Williamson, both warmly believable) have four daughters to advantageously marry off: 14 year-old, motor mouth Lydia – here with a tendency to get drunk (Kimberly Chatterjee who overdoes the childishness of this role); pretty, genteel Jane (Amelia Pedlow, superb in every way); ugly, put-upon Mary (hilariously embodied by a Goth John Tufts) who coughs so persistently, Mr. Bennet finally exclaims, “Have consumption and be done with it!” And our heroine Lizzy              (Kate Hamill), who sees courtship as a facile game that can achieve only unfulfilling liaisons.

Mrs. Bennet is clumsily aggressive while Mr. Bennet, not uncaringly just wants to be left alone to read his paper while his girls find their way. When the estate next door is let by rich, eligible, here, puppy-like Mr. Bingley (Tufts-another bull’s-eye) -he pants and fetches a ball thrown by Darcy  and his snobbish sister Caroline (the mercurial Mark Bedard whose finesse can’t be overrated), mom goes to work. The cherry on top might be Bingley’s houseguest, Mr. Darcy (Jason O’Connell, inhabiting farce and drama with equal plummy skill) who has double his friend’s income. Two daughters offloaded for the price of one!

Mark Bedard, John Tufts, Jason O’Connell

Long story somewhat short – Lizzy is offended by Darcy’s manner (he enters to the storm trooper theme from Star Wars) and a lie told by cad Mr. Wickham (Bedard, with silky bravado) while Darcy is put off by her lack of station. Multiple good deeds fix this and despite palpable (oh the suffering!), respective unwillingness, they fall in love.

Meanwhile Bingley adores Jane from whom he’s parted and reunited by Darcy. Lydia, who appears to be ensnared by Mr. Wickham, in fact, ensnares him. And prissy cousin, Clergyman Collins (Bedard in tick-enhanced, nasal glory,) who will inherit their home because the Bennett’s have no sons, fixes on neighboring Charlotte (Thorn playing it beautifully straight) when rejected by Lizzy.

Chris Thorn, Kate Hamill, Amelia Pedlow, and Mark Bedard

Despite the machinations of Collin’s patroness Lady Catherine DeBourgh (Chatterjee, an admirably imperious portrayal), everyone except Mary finds a mate. In one inventive histrionic fit, Mary gestures to Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” (Turandot), gliding up the aisle, arm outstretched like an Edward Gorey character, muttering “keep applauding, this is a long exit.” The actor then runs around the theater backstage – clump, clump, clump and returns to the stage whipping on Bingley’s cravat. Our audience is beside itself.

Call-out military drills, line dancing, frugs, waltzes (Ellenore Scott’s Choreography is buoyant) and any number of oddly apt 1950s songs keep the production at full musical tilt without swallowing up its story. The aisle is skillfully employed. Actors play guitar and piano. “Bits” involving uncooperative chairs (Bedard) and a tangled coat (O”Connell) are silent film worthy. The company, who developed character idiosyncrasies during early development, are adroit with high-low humor. It’s a pleasure to observe the appreciative camaraderie of those not participating in a scene as they watch their peers cavort.

Kimberly Chatterjee and Amelia Pedlow

With all this, intermittent gravitas reminds us emotions are present below the froth. Sometimes it’s a moment of acknowledgment, others, as in Lizzy and Darcy’s later confrontations, galvanize sympathy.

I’m afraid that, like her appearance in Vanity Fair, Hamill embodies her character with less insight and more ham than that with which her fellows manifest theirs. Perhaps the director thinks an author is untouchable. While mostly redeemed by      Act II (she can clearly act), the first part finds her tantrum-LOUD, dissonant, and thoroughly unappealing in the part of a young woman who may have a biting tongue and progressive ideas but is, in every outward way, attractive and ladylike. This is not to say Lizzy can’t be funny, but that Hamill’s performance looks like trenchant vaudeville while the others are executing farce.

Kate Hamill and Jason O’Connell

Director Amanda Dehnert helms this screwball scenario with a sure hand (excepting Ms. Hamill and Lydia’s repeatedly jumping on Wickham-really?!). In turn artfully goofy, arch, and exuberant, the production shows an excellent editorial eye. What could often be chaos emerges as well calibrated romp, in almost constant movement, but never messy. Costume/character changes are cleverly mined for humor. Pace is brisk, but knows when to pause.

With laughter at a premium these days, Pride and Prejudice arrives a welcome catharsis. Go! Have fun!

John McDermott’s minimal Set utilizes choice elements to place us.                        Tracy Christensen’s Costumes are splendid. The facility with which these are changed enhances antic goings on.

Photos by James Leynse
Opening: The Company

 

Primary Stages presents
Pride And Prejudice by Kate Hamill
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
Directed by Amanda Dehnert
The Cherry Lane Theatre 
38 Commerce Street
Through January 6, 2018
Ovationtix 

Macbeth Performed Entirely by Women at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

07/15/2016

An extraordinary production of Macbeth is playing out this summer under the big tent at the Boscobel estate overlooking the Hudson River. Director Lee Sunday Evans has elected to have the entire cast portrayed by three women, in this case, the talented Maria-Christina Oliveras, Nance Williamson, and Stacey Yen. As the three approach center stage, with menace in their eyes, they are the three witches ready to give Macbeth and his comrade Banquo the prediction that sets off the action.

Then, each one remarkably melds into another character, seamlessly, and with enough of a clue so the audience can follow along.  Having three performers play a roster of characters could be off-putting, but in this case, Evans is playing on the notion that Shakespeare’s plays generally have the women stand by the sidelines and don’t have very much do. As each character comes to life, we are seeing the play in a new light, with the women telling the story, and with a feverish gusto that leaves the audience speechless; you could have heard a pin drop on the dirt floor.

Macbeth HVSF 6-2-16 203In the director’s note, Evans writes, “Macbeth is not a play about legality, but takes us deep into the morass of psychology and desire that can drive individuals to do unconscionable things in the pursuit of power.” Each actor has the opportunity to show raw emotion at the unfolding of the action, from murder to slaughter and to madness. When Yen, as Malcom’s wife comes upon her dead child, her scream of “MURDER” shakes the rafters. The clever use of sound effects and the chanting by the ladies create an eeriness to the murderous plots and brings Shakespeare’s most famous play chillingly alive.

Macbeth is one of three rotating plays at the 2016 Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, now celebrating its 30th anniversary.  As You Like It and Measure for Measure are also on the schedule, and each one has been directed with a new flair, and presented with a fresh point of view. This year, as the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, come celebrate the man considered the “greatest playwright in the English language.” After seeing Macbeth, you will be convinced.

Boscobel is located about 90 minutes north of New York City, in Putnam County. Accessible via Metro North with shuttle service is available at Cold Spring.  The estate is a popular site for picnickers who come for the day, pack a blanket, and watch the Hudson River go by. The season continues until Labor Day.  For ticket information, special performances, and dining ideas, visit  the website for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

Photographs by T. Charles Erickson