THE BASICS:
This is contemporary Canadian playwright Linda Griffiths’ “take” on a late Victorian novel by George Gissing, The Odd Women. Directed by the Shaw’s artistic director, Jackie Maxwell, the play runs in repertory at the Court House Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake, through October 10th. It’s a little over 2 ½ hours, with one intermission.
THUMBNAIL SKETCH:
London, turn of the last century. Ex-suffragette Mary Barfoot, a veteran crusader for the large female underclass, has opened a secretarial school for women, with the aid of her protégé and partner, Rhoda Nunn. Their secret weapon in the war for social and financial independence: the newly invented typewriter! When the troubled, semi-impoverished Madden sisters sign up for improvement, dormant passions and secret desires begin to surface. Students and teachers alike find their lives and relationships changing, shifting, as they explore the joys and pitfalls of being New Women.
THE CAST:
Age of Arousal is a showpiece for women actors, and director Maxwell gets the full measure from her cast of six (yes, there is one man, a likable, enlightened chap who falls for the not-disinterested Rhoda). Among the standouts are Kelli Fox and Sharry Flett as the two older Madden sisters. Fox plays Virginia, a weak reed who has doused her pain in alcohol, and who finds an interesting path to empowerment during a sojourn in Berlin. Sharry Flett, one of the Shaw’s thespian treasures, is wonderful as Alice, the one sister who really takes to typing, revels in her accomplishment, and lives to be proud of her spinsterhood. Jenny Young is also excellent as Rhoda Nunn, a career woman/role model wrestling with her own latent sexuality. The others are also very good; there are no weak links in this cast!
PLAY AND PRODUCTION:
Readers of the Gissing novel have described its tone as detached, quasi-naturalistic. Playwright Griffiths has plenty of sympathy for all, and is more than capable of evoking it from her audience. She clues us into the (often brash) feelings of her players via “thought speak”–a device akin to the aside in classical drama, but with the characters’ verbalized thoughts in close proximity to their actual spoken dialogue. This takes some getting used to, but ultimately provides us with satisfying emotional depth. Director Maxwell seems to be in her element here. There are no static stretches; the plot chugs briskly along. Watch for a group fainting scene–it’s particularly memorable. The astrologically inspired set by Sue LePage is simple, beautiful, and rather odd. It does give something of a transcendent, timeless quality, however, to a piece whose issues continue to haunt us in the 21st century. And there are fine period costumes by Ms. LePage to provide the necessary Victorian grounding.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
A thoughtful, amusing and ultimately moving look at what it means to be a woman in the modern world. It’s well crafted, sympathetic, not at all preachy (as with GBS at his worst). Women are bound to have a special affinity for the Age of Arousal, but any halfway sensitive man could easily fall prey to its charms.
RATING: FOUR BUFFALOS (OUT OF FIVE)