Life With….

The past two nights I spent in Chapel Hill seeing Nicholas Nickleby  at Playmakers Rep.

I went alone something I became comfortable with doing years ago – while I hate to go to movies and restaurants by myself, I realized a long time ago that if I cannot find takers to come with me to a theatrical production (which seems to happen about 1/3 of the time) it was worth it go alone rather then missing the experience.    I saw the best Broadway play I have ever seen that way (the Pillowman with Billy Cruddup and Jeff Goldblum), as well as a few shows like Cabaret and one or two at DPAC. Others that inspired me, particularly off Broadway shows, regional productions, or summer stock, I have shared with others, but the lack of a partner to share the experience with Will not detain me from a show.  I was not the only single person there – i would venture to guess at least a quarter of the audience last night were there alone and it was nice to meet a few other people that way.

A word of warning – although the author reduced the script significantly run time is still six hours and 22 minutes over two parts (the original version was  over 8 hours – it was performed years ago by the Royal Shakespeare Company on Broadway).  This should come as no surprise – the book is after all by Dickens, and was a serialised story meaning that tangential plots should be expected.  Unfortunately I would have culled a few more of the sub stories, especially after hearing a few in the audience who were unfamiliar with the original story and were  trying to keep characters and plot lines straight – some were doing this admirably a few had quite obviously missed a few key plot developments and were confused the whole third act of part 2.  This problem was exacerbated by the fact that due to the dictates of the script, and the size of the company, most actors were forced to play multiple roles and in a few cases the costumes separating one character from another were minimal so as to aid in quick costume changes.

But as long as it was most of the acting was wonderful – especially when you consider the number of lines and parts they were being required to remember (a point brought home by vignettes of rehearsals for a version of Romeo and Juliet shown within the play in which all the characters are resurrected except Tybalt).  In particular the actors portraying Smike (Jason Powers) who had to hold himself in what looked to be a particular uncomfortable manner for most of the show – and allowed himself to be actually beaten on stage with a riding whip, Ralph Nickleby (Ray Dooley), Nicholas Nickelby (Justin Adams), the actor who played Mr. Squeers and Charles Cheerbyle (Scott Ripley), and Dede Corvinus who I beleive was not only Miss LeCreevy and Mrs. Squeers but Mrs. Crummels as well.   All of these acors made you miss them when the were not on stage, and I would love to see anything with the Squeers family, the Crummles Company, or the Cheerbyles who enlivened the production and had me sitting at attention when they were on stage.

Most of the other cast was fine to watch as well – I enjoyed seeing them  change their speaking pattern and voices as well as how they held themselves and walked as they changed among their various roles.    The weakest point in the show for me was two of the actresses – in particular  Alison Altman who played two major female characters Fanny Squeers and Madeline Bray and Marriane Miller who played Kate Nickebly.

The problem for Ms. Miller was that she was not able to surpass the woodenness of the script she was given for much of the show – a major exception being her interaction with Smike – her earnestness and virtuousness needed to be leavened a bit by some spark of emotion in order to explain the attraction.  This was not her fault and overcoming the two dimensionality of her character would be quite a task, unfortunately, she was just close enough to succeeding to make me wish she had done it more.

The larger problem was Ms. Altman – who was the least able switch gears between her characters.  I kept seeing pieces of Fanny in Madeline (two characters who are supposed to be opposites in character and beauty) and vice versa.  The costumes and makeup  allowed the characters to be kept straight but here echoes of Fanny’s whine in Madeline harmed her performance.

Outside of these two complaints the cast was fun to watch, exciting, and captaviatin – any long moments were definitely due to unnecessary exposition.  The set, while minimal was effective – especially when used to evoke the hustle and bustle and idrt of 19th century London. The costumes were insightful, and truly evoked social status as well as, just as importantly, allowed for the characters to be kept straight.

All in all it was one of the better shows I have seen in the area, and it left me charged up, anxious to see more shows, and to go back to the source material.  I have not been able to get certain scenes out of my head, and some of the commanding performances made it worth my time.   Next up Jane Eyre which has not been getting great reviews.

For more information on Nicholas Nickelby at Playmakers see here and here.

All text and copyrights preserved by the author 02csb For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Courtney Brown

Create Your Badge  All text and copyrights preserved by the author for words and original pictures and may not be used without author's permission. For more information visit http://www.peebesalgy.com Follow me on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/peebesalgy or contact me directly through http://www.peebesalgy.com/blog/contact-me/ Courtney Brown | Create Your Badge