A Review of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall          

            Last Thursday, I watched the play "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" directed by Sarah Rodgers, which was at the Frederic Wood Theatre. It was quite an interesting play to watch for me, particularly because it was quite wordy, which I assume it was because the play was an adaptation from Anne Bronte's novel.

            The play starts out with a set in 19th century U.K, showing a small group of people from the same village, gossiping about with each other about a mysterious new lady that just moved in to town, specifically into the house, Wildfell Hall. The woman, Helen Graham (Meegin Pye), does not reveal anything about her past life before she moved to Wildfell Hall, which makes some citizens very curious, and some others quite upset. Eventually, a young, flirtatious man named Gilbert (Francis Winter) falls hopelessly in love with Helen, mostly because of her very "unladylike" views on woman's rights of independence and strength.  Throughout the story, Gilbert slowly learns the truth behind Helen's past life; about how she abandoned her unfaithful and controlling husband and came to Wildfell Hall.

            The acting was quite good in general, although there were some slight issues, such as all the actors standing in a line, talking with each other. For some scenes, the dialogue seemed to turn into monotone chatter. Another inconsistency I noticed were the accents. I could not tell if they were trying to speak in an English accent, Scottish accent, or an American Canadian accent. Other than those problems, the actors and actresses filled their roles very well. For most of the time, the dialogue was snappy, witty, and very emotional. I think that there was quite a lot of tension when Gilbert had seen Helen hugging another man (Frederick Lawrence), making Gilbert quite jealous and angry, eventually leading to him hitting the man, which also eventually ended in him finding out that the man was Helen's brother. The anger in that scene was very well portrayed, and put me on the edge.

            In my opinion, the best experiences from the play were from the lighting, music, and costumes. Those three effects combined immediately put me in the mood for a good 19th century story, and it certainly delivered the feeling as well. The set and costume designer (Jacqueline Firkins) did a fine job in interpreting the play onto the stage. The lighting was very simple, usually a solid color in the background that changed color when the scenes changed to represent a certain mood of that scene. For example, when Gilbert would get angry, the background color would be a dark orange or a very light crimson color, giving the audience a slightly agitated, empathetic feeling for Gilbert. The music, which was scattered throughout the play, were light romantic-era pieces that really brought the mood of being in the 1800's. The music especially set the mood before the play, as it gave a sophisticated and calm feeling, as you would expect from a small town in Scotland. The music also assisted greatly in the scene changes, as it made the set changes and transitions a lot less awkward. The costumes were the real selling point in the play for me. Every single detail on the costumes were tuned to perfection, from the boots to the sideburns on the men. All of the costumes were also quite simple, each costume defining the character that wore it. For example, Helen wore a simple black dress the whole play, showing her slight mourning side of a "widow", while Gilbert also wore simple clothing of a farmer boy, to show his raucousness and his countryside playfulness.

            Overall, I think that the play was well-executed and very fluid with transitions. The set and costume design was the main winning point, as they were completely perfect, matching the time period and country. The acting was very convincing, as they portrayed their characters fully with no flaws. Especially since the play was derived from the novel, I think that it was a very well polished performance and script, other than some minor issues in dialogue. The messages in the book were well portrayed in the play, such as the themes of female independence and the somewhat unfair patriarchal society that was in place during the 1800's. Although the play had quite a small cast, they managed to convey the feeling of watching an intricate and complex play. I would recommend this play to all people who love a good story that is quite unpredictable, yet calm and also unnerving at times.