Charles Dickens' Bleak House

November 2 – December 16, 2001

January 5 – February 3, 2002

 

Written by Gene Franklin Smith

Directed by Larry McCallister

Produced by Wrtie Act Repertory Company

with Karen Marie Anderson & Victoria Sterling


 Set Design  --  Donna Marquet
Lighting Design  --  J. Kent Inasy
Costume Design -- Dana Rosenberg

Stage Managers -- Colleen Cortes, Brad Riley

Los Angeles Times Theater Review

PACING, CAST TRANSFORM 'BLEAK HOUSE' INTO A BRIGHT ENTERPRISE
By PHILIP BRANDES, Special to The Times
Thursday, November 29, 2001

For the century and a half after it was ushered by the pen of Mr. Charles Dickens into the fog-enshrouded London social order so vividly depicted in its opening, it remained a matter of considerable doubt whether "Bleak House," with its labyrinthine plot, could find as comfortable a perch on the stage as its more frequently adapted literary siblings born of the aforementioned Mr. Dickens' fertile imagination--a transposition rendered all the more daunting by the author's rambling, long-winded style and voice, which a reviewer can but hope to dimly honor by following the example set by the Dickensian curtain speech cautioning against crinkled candy wrappers and mobile phones that precedes the Write Act Repertory Company's performance at St. Stephen's Church in the Wood of Holly.

To the question posed, the answer proves a qualified affirmative, as the adapter, Mr. Gene Franklin Smith, to a satisfying degree, has distilled the narrative's dizzying complexities while yet preserving both the humane social conscience and the keen eye for personal eccentricity that so distinguished Mr. Dickens' writing.

Although the prolonged inheritance lawsuit that fuels the author's merciless satiric jabs at the absurdities of the British legal system lasted 93 years, dispassionate spectators will doubtless be relieved to learn that this stage chronicle of the final disposition of the case occupies little more than one-three-hundred-thousandth of that interval, with intermission. Furthermore, the galloping pace set by the director, Mr. Larry McCallister, and a fine ensemble of 16, in handsomely differentiated multiple roles, make the passage of time pleasurable.

Meriting special commendation in this latter regard are the compelling presences of Miss Wendy Gough as the noble parentless heroine, Miss Ami Dolenz and Mr. Mathew Vipond as her fellow orphans, Mr. Adam Menken as both their wealthy benefactor and the relentless inspector on the trail of a murderer, Mr. Cameron Mitchell Jr. as a kindly barrister, Mr. Steve Peterson as the villainous lawyer, and Miss Pamela Salem as the aristocrat who shelters an ominous past.

The drama is ripe with melodrama--indeed, often overly so--and the best efforts of all concerned cannot entirely blot out the forced machinations that bedevil the characters. However, the creators have embraced the age-old adage that if one cannot vanquish the sources of one's adversities one should unite with them; far be it for me to do otherwise.

Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

 

Wendy Gough and Christopher Rydman

 (below) Adam Menken and Wendy Gough

The L.A. Weekly says:
"Smart and witty production...mellifluous adaptation retains all the flavor of the novel...sure-handed direction...the ensemble work is superb...exceptionally powerful performances!"

NoHo LA writes:
"Deserves all of your attention. Go see it! I said, GO SEE IT! Fast-paced, excellent direction...you will emerge entertained!"

Backstage West says:
"Ambitious...and succeeds! Engaging...wonderfully resonant!"

Mathew Vipond

Christopher Goodman, Wendy Gough, Caroline Kera, Ami Dolenz and Mathew Vipond

Cast

Charles Dicken's Bleak House


Lord Chancellor/Brickmaker/George Rouncewell . . . .    Robert Hughes
Mr. Tangle/Dr. Allan Woodcourt . . . . .    Christopher Goodman
Mr. Kenge/Krook/Sir Leicester Dedlock . . . . . .     Cameron Mitchell, Jr.
Richard Carstone/Tony Jobling . . . . . .. . .      Mathew Vipond
Ada Clare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . .         Ami Dolenz
Miss Flite/Mrs. Jellyby/Mrs. Bucket . . .  . . . .    Caroline Kera
Esther Summerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..          Wendy Gough
Miss Barbary/Liz/Mrs. Rouncewell/Mrs. Guppy . . . . .   Maggie Peach
Mrs. Rachel/Hortense . . . . . . . . . . . .       Elizabeth A. Hillman
William Guppy/Coavins . . . . . . . .  . .      Christopher Rydman
Harold Skimpole/"Nemo" . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . .      Steve Keyes
Lady Honoria Dedlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       Pamela Salem
Mr. Tulkinghorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       Steve Peterson
John Jarndyce/Inspector Bucket . . . .  . . . .       Adam Menken
Jenny/Rosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     Natasha Goodman
Jo/Mr. Vholes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . .       Travis Eliot
Liz/Mrs. Bucket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .        Von Rae Wood*
Miss Flite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .  . . . .        Sue Ozeran*
Miss Barbary/Mrs. Jellyby/Mrs. Rouncewell/Mrs. Guppy . . . Maggie Peach*

(*January 5 — February 3, 2002)

 


LA WEEKLY

Jan 25-31, 2002

Gene Franklin Smith brings a Dickens Novel to the Stage

Sandra Ross


Smith: The prince of

Bleak House
(Photo by Anne Fishbein)

Next to the fuchsia marabou and other colorful plumage at Buzz, a West Hollywood hipster coffee bar, Gene Franklin Smith stands out. His pallor and sensible sweater ensemble immediately mark him as the kind of person who’s read Bleak House more than once.

Charles Dickens’ labyrinthine novel has been turned into a supersleek adaptation by Smith, and coolly realized onstage by Larry McCallister for Write Act Repertory Company. Ordering plain coffee rather than any of the chichi specialty drinks on the menu, Smith chats about the success of his play and the particular challenges of bringing Dickens to life as a stage work in movieland.

“I loved Dynasty. It was my favorite show, and I never missed it,” he gushes about Aaron Spelling’s ’80s TV megahit. “Bleak House is one big juicy melodrama, just like Dynasty. In the book, 13 people die — but we’ve got it down to eight.”

Smith’s true feat is in culling Dickens’ elaborately plotted 900-plus-page novel into a stage event lasting just over two and a half hours. (By contrast, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby clocked in at over eight and a half.) Smith’s adaptation proves that engaging theater doesn’t have to be an endurance sport — his streamlined adaptation contains all the color, flavor and vigor of the novel. Dickens’ much-beloved grotesques still appear — dissolute poet Harold Skimpole (Steve Keyes), crackpot charity organizer Mrs. Jellyby (Caroline Kera), aggressive, small-fish social climber Mrs. Guppy (Maggie Peach), and the aptly named criminal Krook (Cameron Mitchell Jr.), who dies of spontaneous combustion.

Smith shifts much of Dickens’ ironic narration over to the character Esther Summerson (Wendy Gough), one of a trio of orphans involved in a tangled legal case whose length financially drains the estate in question. Smith has more narrowly focused the narrative on Esther’s search for identity and has cut characters who don’t come into contact with her.

The show is now in its second extension, and ticket sales have been brisk, claims Smith, due in part to the “Dickens freaks.”

“They’re like Trekkies,” Smith explains. “And now they’ve listed us on their Dickens Web sites.”

Founder and artistic director of Write Act Repertory Company, a relatively new troupe renting space from St. Stephen’s Church in Hollywood, Smith is well aware that ticket sales everywhere have dropped off, and filling seats (politely known as “audience development” in theater circles) is a Herculean task in our Dickensian times. Recently, Write Act board of advisers member Debbie Reynolds came to see Bleak House, and she mistakenly went to the wrong theater, Actors Co-op, at a different church across the street. The Co-op’s box-office staff reluctantly directed the perky blond star across Gower to the correct theater.

“[Reynolds has] done it twice,” Smith sighs, “but Actors Co-op wanted to keep her when she showed up there the second time.”

The production is also linked to the Hollywood machine through Smith’s day job — he toils in the legal department of a major Hollywood studio. Drafting employment contracts day after day — scribbling like the Dickens or one of his fictional stand-ins — not only pays Smith’s bills, it allows him to work on plays like Bleak House.

 

 

(left) Cameron Mitchell, Jr.

 

Robert Hughes, Wendy Gough and Ami Dolenz

Wendy Gough and Pamela Salem


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