'Brontë' satisfies only literary fans
Polly Teale weaving historical fact with literary fiction in her play "Brontë" will no doubt delight fans of sisters Charlotte ("Jane Eyre") and Emily ("Wuthering Heights"). That, plus the match-the-character-to-its-real-life-counterpart, combined with a glimpse of the lesser known Brontë siblings: sister Anne, also a writer, and brother Branwell, a minor painter, should keep Brontë aficionados entertained.
But it's unlikely Teale's earnest but problematic bio-drama will satisfy theater-lovers. James Bohnen's U.S. premiere for Remy Bumppo Theatre is competent and well-acted. "Brontë's" main problems rest with contrived storytelling that too often pulls us out of the action. The play finds its footing in the more straightforward second act. But that can't quite make up for a tedious act that precedes it, intrusive characters who disrupt the narrative, or the play's inexplicable and pointless prologue where the actresses playing the sisters don their costumes while they deliver the Brontë backstory.
More Coverage Video "Bront#235;"
There's ambitious Charlotte (Susan Shunk), who yearns for success and the bit of immortality that accompanies it; enigmatic Emily (Carrie A. Coon), who craves anonymity; and Anne (Rachel Sondag), the trio's social conscience. The physical resemblance between Shunk, Coon and Sondag make them credible sisters. But it's the convincing combination of intelligence, delicacy and resolve reflected in their performances that make these characters memorable.
Poor and plain, the intellectually gifted spinsters live in a remote parsonage in West Yorkshire, England, in the parish over which their minister father, Patrick (Patrick Clear), presides.
Joining them in between his failed attempts to establish a career is their dissolute brother, Branwell (Gregory Anderson). A spendthrift whose drinking and gambling puts the family at risk, Branwell's romantic exploits provide fodder for the writing, which provides his sisters an escape from their solitary lives.
Frustrated by a patriarchal society that denies women any form or artistic or intellectual expression, they channel their unexpressed passion into impassioned novels that would eventually rank among the 19th century's most enduring literary works.
Some of the play's most intriguing moments involve the blurring of the line between reality and fiction, when characters played by Shunk, Anderson and Clear morph into the literary counterparts (Jane, Heathcliff and Edward Rochester respectively). Unfortunately Teale's other attempts at blurring this line fail. The inclusion of a figment of the sisters' literary imaginations in the form of the Bertha/Cathy character -- a symbol of sexual repression played by Linda Gillum, who deserves better -- is both intrusive and unnecessary. And by the second act, the gimmick has worn thin.
Besides history lesson and literary homage, "Bront#235;" also stands as a testament to female empowerment and to the creative impulse (vividly expressed by set designer Tim Morrison's Yorkshire moors, which literally break through the walls of the Bront#235; home). Just as nature breaks its bonds to intrude upon domestic life, the artist shatters the bonds proscribed by gender and society to express herself.
"Bront#235;"
2#189; stars out of four
Location: Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago
Times: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays; through May 4. Also 10:30 a.m. April 9 and 23.
Running Time: About 2 hours, 20 minutes, with intermission
Tickets: $35-$40
Box office: (773) 871-3000 or remybumppo.org
Rating: For teens and older, contains some sexual content