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If
you close your eyes and just listen to the dialogue, Mary Wadkins
becomes Emily Dickinson.
Wadkins,
a New York actress who was raised in Lake Oswego, is celebrating a
homecoming of sorts by presenting "The Belle of Amherst" at
the Portland Civic Theatre Blue Room.
The
stage play, a one-woman show, is about the life of Dickinson. The
play was written by Portland's William Luce in the 1970's, and was first
performed by Julie Harris in Seattle.
Eventually,
Harris took the show to Broadway, and won a Tony Award for best
actress. She also earned an Emmy nomination in the PBS television
production of the show and won a Grammy Award for her recording of the
play.
Luce
has painted a beautiful portrait of Dickinson and Wadkins provides all
the right brush strokes.
"The
Belle of Amherst" follows Dickinson's life from age 15 to her
death 41 years later in 1866. Dickinson lived most of her life in
the Amherst, Mass., family house, "The Homestead", where she
gained notoriety as a romantic recluse and the local eccentric.
Wearing
"bridal white" and rarely leaving home, she spent hours
recording her secret thoughts in more than 1,700 poems.
For
a little more than two hours, Wadkins becomes Dickinson, sharing
intimate thoughts, philosophy, importance of family and frustration at
not being able to find a publisher for her poems.
The
play provides a wealth of information about Dickinson and her view of
life. An intriguing part of the story is her desire to be
published and her reaction to rejection by critics and publishers.
"Maybe
no one will read my poems. They seem like an undelivered letter
lost in transit," she said.
Clutching
a box of her poems, she later says "This is my letter to world that
did not write me."
Very
few of Dickinson's poems were published during her lifetime. A
great many of her poems were first published in 1890, four years after
her death. The last group of unpublished poems was finally printed
in 1945.
The
play hits an occasional slow spot, but, for the most part, the script
and its delivery are first rate. A 20-minute trim would make the
play snappier, but deciding what material to cut would be a nightmare. |
