Many 19th-century operas (ranging from bel canto to works by Verdi and Wagner) are set in societies with visible class distinctions. Gods and royalty live notably different lifestyles from the slaves and dwarfs depicted in Aida and Der Ring des Nibelungen. Though costumes in period dramas set in the 1800s often derive from military uniforms or the aristocracy, when compared to today's fashions it becomes obvious that today's playwrights are crafting very few comedies of manners.
How can they in a society where people make romantic choices by swiping left or right? Or when it becomes more difficult to find avocado toast than a casual blowjob?
In their 1975 hit musical, Chicago, John Kander and Fred Ebb described our social crisis in a duet between Velma Kelly and Matron "Mama" Morton entitled "Class."
Gone are the days when a woman's behavior was limited to the extremes of crass and class, when women had no agency in determining their future, and such "colorful characters" as Carmen, Belle Watling, Julie LaVerne, and Violetta Valery could be worshipped in one moment and shunned in another. Playwright Kate Hamill, who has written new stage adaptations of two classics by Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice) is quick to point out that:
“The big myth is that we’ve moved on from a society that harshly judges you for the choices you make in the context of being, say, poor and female. Right now, we are interrogating women’s roles in society, how women are judged, and the rules that women are traditionally supposed to follow. I’m really interested in class and social structures, (which were much more delineated in the 1800s). When I started working on Jane Austen, I realized that all the stage adaptations of Sense and Sensibility were by men. So many of these female-centric classics continue to be filtered through a male gaze. I was interested in reclaiming them with a female gaze. That’s how I started playing in that 19th-century novel landscape. All my work is quite consciously feminist.”
“In my more optimistic moments, I tend to believe we’re on the brink of something changing. I also think that the illusion now is that our class structure is more porous when, in fact, I would argue that it’s almost as stratified as it was in the 19th century. Today, as in that century, the richest are getting richer and the poor are being driven into increasingly desperate circumstances. The gulf is getting wider. It’s time to explore what that means in people’s lives and the structure of our communities. I always find it helpful to do that with the wider lens of historical context.”In 2017, the Pearl Theatre in New York City produced the world premiere of Hamill's Vanity Fair (based on the 1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray) with the playwright portraying the ambitious, self-serving Becky Sharp. As part of a co-production with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater
is presenting Vanity Fair with a cast of seven actors.
If anyone deserves to be remembered by the phrase "Nevertheless, she persisted," it is indeed Becky Sharp (Rebekah Brockman), who first appears as a scholarship student of dubious lineage graduating from an elite girls' school. Over the course of two rapidly-paced acts, Becky continues to claw her way up the social ladder with more grit and determination than the unsinkable Molly Brown. Along with Maribel Martinez as her best friend from school, Amelia Sedley, these two actors are the only performers limited to one role.
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| Rebekah Brockman (Becky Sharp) and Maribel Martinez (Amelia Sedley) in a scene from Vanity Fair (Photo by: Scott Suchman) |
Director Jessica Stone, who was both intrigued and inspired by what she calls "a fairly obscure genre" (Victorian burlesque) notes that “Watching these two women navigating the patriarchy, it’s clear that a lot has changed and nothing has changed.” Working on Alexander Dodge's charming set (with costumes designed by Jennifer Moeller, lighting by David Weiner, choreography by Connor Gallagher, and sound design and original music by Jane Shaw), Stone keeps the audience on the edge of their seats (and her actors on the run) throughout a ribald and rowdy romp that includes one of the most grandiloquent fart jokes in stage history.
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| Dan Hiatt (Miss Matilda Crawley) and Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan (Miss Briggs) in a scene from Vanity Fair (Photo by: Scott Suchman) |
Bay area veteran Dan Hiatt appears as the manager of Vanity Fair and the lecherous Lord Steyne as well as enjoying a hilarious turn in drag as the elderly Miss Matilda Crawley. Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan jumps in and out of nine roles (including the simpering Miss Briggs and Amelia's good-for-nothing husband, George).
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| Anthony Michael Lopez (Miss Pinkerton) and Vincent Randazzo (Miss Jemima) in a scene from Vanity Fair (Photo by: Scott Suchman) |
Bringing the raucous energy of low comedy and the insane joy of burlesque back to life with a vengeance are Anthony Michael Lopez (who portrays the love-sick Dobbin, Rose Crawley, and Miss Pinkerton) and Vincent Randazzo (whose bravura performance encapsulates the simple-minded Jos, Sir Pitt, Miss Jemima, an auctioneer, Lady Chesterton, and the King).
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| Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan, Vincent Randazzo, and Anthony Michael Lopez in a scene from Vanity Fair (Photo by: Scott Suchman) |
If Adam Magill (Rawdon) and Rebekah Brockman (Becky Sharp) embody an ambitious social climbing couple that could be the Javanka of their day, they make a handsome pair whose physical charms outweigh their greed and amorality (Magill also appears as Mr. Sedley, a Coachman, and a hilarious German fairgoer).
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| Adam Magill (Rawdon) and Rebekah Brockman (Becky Sharp) in a scene from Vanity Fair (Photo by: Scott Suchman) |
If you crave entertainment crafted by gifted theatre artists, filled with solid laughs, and bubbling over with inventive storytelling, don't miss this production. Performances of Vanity Fair continue through May 12 at the American Conservatory Theater (click here for tickets).
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Over in Berkeley, the Aurora Theatre Company is presenting a new production of Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest (which had its world premiere on February 14, 1895). Directed by incoming artistic director Josh Costello on a delightful unit set designed by Nina Ball (with costumes by Maggie Whitaker, lighting by Wen-Ling Liao, and sound design by Chris Houston, who also composed the incidental music), the production offers a timely reminder of Wilde's biting wit and how little agency women had over their own lives 125 years ago. |
| Anna Ishida (Gwendolen Fairfax) and Gianna DiGregorio Rivera (Cecily Cardew) in a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest (Photo by: David Allen) |
While the play's title derives in part from the romantic fantasy shared by the two women whose futures are at stake -- Gwendolen Fairfax (Anna Ishida) and Cecily Cardew (Gianna DiGregorio Rivera) -- the true importance of being Earnest is revealed at the end of the play via a plot twist as old as the story of Moses which has been employed to great effect in comedy and tragedy throughout time. Gilbert and Sullivan used it particularly well in 1878's H.M.S. Pinafore and 1879's The Pirates of Penzance.
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| Jack Worthing (Mohammed Shehata) learns his true identity in a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest (Photo by: David Allen) |
No matter how many times one has watched Wilde's play, changes in the world around us trigger changes in how an audience experiences The Importance of Being Earnest. After a decade of listening to accusations of "male privilege," watching the two-faced, ego-driven shenanigans of Algernon Moncrieff (Patrick Kelly Jones) and his close friend, Jack Worthing (Mohammed Shehata), reveals them to be more fatuous fools than we might have previously understood. The shallowness of their desires, the smugness with which they have concocted their ruses, and the ease with which they betray their friendship (yet seem shocked to have been betrayed by their closest friend), underline the selfishness of some people to manipulate others as toys for their amusement.
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| Patrick Kelly Jones (Algernon Moncrieff) and Mohammed Shehata (Jack Worthing) in a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest (Photo by: David Allen) |
When viewed from a modern perspective, the audience might have more sympathy for the older women in Wilde's play. While the ludicrously haughty Lady Bracknell (Sharon Lockwood) tries to keep others in their place by clinging to a ridiculous set of social standards Cecily's governess -- the seemingly unimportant Miss Prism (Trish Mulholland) -- has been hiding a classically shameful secret that will catapult her into the exalted ranks of Little Buttercup and Ruth (that piratical maid-of-all-work) once it has been revealed.
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| Sharon Lockwood (Lady Bracknell) and Mohammed Shehata (Jack Worthing) in a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest (Photo by: David Allen) |
Aurora's seven-actor ensemble includes Louel Senores as Worthing's servant (Merriman) and Michael Torres doubling as Moncrieff's servant (Lane) and The Reverend Canon Chasuble. While it's always a pleasure to watch Anna Ishida and Sharon Lockwood work their magic onstage, their characters have a mature level of wisdom that Worthing's ward, Cecily, cannot hope to understand in her youth.
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| Gianna DiGregorio Rivera (Cecily Cardew) and Patrick Kelly Jones (Algernon Moncrieff) in a scene from The Importance of Being Earnest (Photo by: David Allen) |
It would be easy to take the finely-etched portrayals by Patrick Kelly Jones as Algernon and Mohammed Shehata as Jack for granted if the preening. self-satisfaction of their characters merely represented caricatures of male privilege from the past. However, the timeliness of great art lies in its ability to hold a mirror up to society. Or, the tag-line for the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival claims: "True Art Transcends Time."
Performances of The Importance of Being Earnest continue through May 19 at the Aurora Theatre Company (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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