Theater Review: Emily

Christopher Bonewitz and Elizabeth A. Davis

This Drama about Dickinson Never Finds its Beat
By Lauren Yarger
Not much is known for sure about poet Emily Dickinson except that she led a reclusive life in Victorian-era Amherst, Massachusetts, that she might have had a romance, she wore a lot of white dresses and bucked poetic tradition to write rather depressing, oddly structured poems. After viewing Chris Cragin’s Emily: An Amethyst Remembrance being staged by Firebone Theater Off-Broadway on Theater Row, we know little more.

Directed by Steve Day, the drama unfolds backwards in time to explore the life of Emily (Elizabeth A. Davis) and her relationships with those closest to her: brother Austin (Jared Hausman), his wife Sue (Jenny Ledel), sister Lavinia (Misty Foster Venters) and her preceptors Newton and Mr. Williamson (both played by Christopher Bonewitz). All of the actors, except Davis, also play other characters along the way.

The time-tripping plot (which isn’t always clear except for dates and scene titles projected onto the set) never gives us any real insight into Emily, however, except that she was rather self-absorbed and uncaring, apparently. Davis, dressed and coiffed just as the stark, plain image you have in your mind of Dickinson (Victoria Depew, costumes) never develops beyond that. Why does she wear white? Why does she retire to her father’s study and refuse to see people, even Mr. Wilkinson? And why does the family tolerate her behavior (Emily decides to move her bedroom into the study, apparently without caring whether her father will object or whether he might be inconvenienced to be put out of his study)?

Like punctuation or line breaks that can disrupt the structure of a poem, Day’s choice of stark blocks and a large door for set pieces (Rachel Beckerman, scenic and lighting design) disrupts the play by drawing attention to the constant moving of the pieces by the cast members to create a table, or a bed, or a piano. At one point, Emily hoists the cumbersome door out of it’s pipe-fitted fixture (where it actually plays the role of a door in the center of the stage) to move it to its next incarnation causing us to wonder if one of the many mysteries about the poet might have been that she was a secret body builder.

The door doubles as a table, but only sometimes (and doesn't even get to play a door in some scenes, where the actors knock on invisible ones). In one scene, the family gathers around an invisible table. They also chew on invisible hot cross buns. It’s really annoying and at intermission when a member of the stage crew began drilling the box pieces in preparation for their further use in Act 2, I was tempted to offer my services to use a chainsaw to break up that really annoying door.

Most significantly, the use of minimal set fails to highlight Emily’s isolation from the world around her. There is no world around her in this production, so she becomes the main focus and such a close up look isn’t flattering. She’s cold and selfish and rather uninteresting. Rolling on a piano, a Victorian sofa and bed and throwing some real buns on a plate would have made her seem less severe.

Day also fails to coax the best performances out of the actors. A shawl and a pair of glasses hardly changes Ledel from young Sue into Emily’s mother. Bonewitz resorts to a high-pitched clipped accent to distinguish Williamson from Newton.

Interestingly, the scene opening Act 2 gives us a glimpse of what might have been, It’s a comprehensively staged scene in which Austin and Sue marry, followed by their reception. There’s dancing (Kimi Nikaidoh lends some very nice choreography), conversation and a glimpse into these people unencumbered by boxes and doors, and it’s very interesting, but alas, it is too brief.

Cragin offers a nice blend of storytelling and Dickinson’s poems, with excerpts sometimes recited by Emily, sometimes by multiple characters, but the production lacks cohesiveness to be able to convey the tale effectively.

I really enjoyed, however, the title of scene 4: “The Awe Full Door.” Change that to “awful” and there you have it.

Emily plays through Sept. 27 at the Kirk Theater, 410 West 42nd St. For tickets visit http://www.ticketcentral.com/ or by calling 212-279-4200.

Christians might also like to know:
• FIREBONE THEATRE produces and develops works that explore immortality (fire) and mortality (bone). Their first production was the world Premiere of the play Deadheading Roses by resident playwright Chris Cragin at The Lamb’s Little Theatre in Times Square. In 2008 they presented the North American premiere of Refuge of Lies by Ron Reed, at Theatre Row. Recently they produced A Mysterious Way, which was performed in a NYC subway station.
• EMILY was originally workshopped at Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, Canada, (http://www.pacifictheatre.org/.)