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The Belle of Amherst
By Deirdre Donovan Joely Richardson brings 19th Century poet Emily Dickinson alive in her one-woman performance at the West End Theatre. William Luce’s one-woman play about the great American poet Emily Dickinson arrives at the West End Theatre with Joely Richardson as the principal. And though this role changed Julie Harris from a “tame mouse” (to borrow the term that then New York Times critic Walter Kerr used to describe the actress before she fully ripened her craft) to a lioness of the stage, don’t expect it to do the same for Richardson. Richardson (Yes, she is the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave) does a Herculean feat here as she brings Dickinson alive in the flesh and blood. But she hardly makes you forget Harris’ 1976 Broadway performance, which theatergoer’s can still enjoy in its PBS broadcast taping of the live stage production. That said, Richardson is impressive as the mystical center of Luce’s play. Richardson gets all the play’s lines down pat. And when it comes to delivering the powerful poems imbedded in Luce’s text, she adds polish and more to each and every verse. The problem, however, is that it all becomes a tad predictable. What was incredible about the original production—Harris herself, Luce’s charming script, and the wonder that a one-person play could appeal to the toughest New York critics-- now comes across with less theatrical voltage. Yes, Richardson is watchable as she embodies the eccentric poet but just doesn’t radiate in the role. What a feast of poetry, however, for Dickinson’s fans! Many of the 19th century poet’s major poems are presented whole cloth. We get to enjoy such gems as “The Soul Selects Her Own Society,” “Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers,” “Tell All the Truth But Tell It Slant,” and “Because I Could Not Stop For Death,” to mention a few put forth by Richardson’s Dickinson. Moreover, we learn that Dickinson had an emotionally distant relationship with her starchy parents, who provided a good home for her but little human warmth. There’s also a dramatization of snippets of Dickinson’s letters to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the publisher of the Atlantic Monthly magazine, who first corresponded with the poet by letter and later visited the recluse at her Amherst, Massachusetts home. And it is illuminating to listen to Higginson’s comments to Dickinson, gleaned from his brief correspondence with her. He criticized her poetry for its nonconventional meter and rhymes. Yet impressed with its raw power, he ended up publishing a few of her poems in his magazine during her lifetime. In Luce’s play, however, what comes across is his immediate criticism of her poetry and Dickinson’s feeling that she had been shrugged off by the then don of the literary world. Up to snuff is Steve Cosson’s clear-eyed direction and the combined efforts of the creative team. Antje Ellermann’s set design convincingly conveys the Dickinson homestead, the poet’s writing desk and room, and the kitchen accouterments, including the large pan of “black cake” held by Richardson at the play’s opening. David Weiner’s lighting evenly washes over the stage and follows Richardson’s in her to-ing and fro-ing in her New England home. William Ivey Long’s costumes are apropos in their white color and plain style. Many scholars have dubbed Dickinson as the “nun of Amherst.” And one can see why by Long’s modest-looking outfit here. If you go to this new rendition expecting it to measure up to Harris’ star turn in the original production (or its taped version), you will have to wait a while longer. Richardson fulfills the role but doesn’t infuse it with the same incandescent quality that her predecessor brought to it. Through
January 25th
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