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| Tracee Chimo & Company in "Fingersmith" (photo: Evgenia Eliseeva) |
Fingersmith, based on the ingenious novel by Sarah Waters, has seen the light of day not just in print but on television (a three-hour BBC miniseries with Imelda Staunton) and film (the recent Japanese/Korean movie entitled “The Handmaiden”). Now it arrives at ART in Cambridge as a live theatrical thriller, from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (premiering there in 2015), here directed by that same company's Artistic Director Bill Rauch (of All the Way fame). It's a mystery within a mystery within a mystery, rather like one of those nestled Russian matryoshka dolls. And it is quite impossible to describe much of these Victorian hijinks without letting drop some unpardonable spoilers. Having read the book and seen the BBC teleplay (though not the film), one was all too eager to see this staged version as written by Alexa Junge. Such eagerness, alas, can't be shared, as it would have to consist of plot points best discovered on one's own. Suffice it to say that Junge's tale is as though Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins had had a love child (though of course impossible then as now) and had given birth to a convoluted thriller in which nothing is as it seems at first, or even second, thought.
In Victorian London, pickpocket Sue Trinder (a superb
Tracee Chimo) lives with a rough and rowdy bunch of fellow outcasts,
from John Vroom (Luke Marinkovich) to Mr. Ibbs (Patrick Kerr) to
Dainty Warren (Jo Mei), led by the Fagan-like Mrs. Sucksby (the
marvelous Kristine Nielsen). Into this far-from-idyllic den of
thieves arrives Richard “Gentleman” Rivers (Josiah Bania), with
nefarious plans of his own involving a future heiress by the name of
Maud Lilly (Christina Bennett Lind). Other characters include Spiller
(Lauren Modica), Charles (Zachary Infante), Mrs. Styles (Kate Levy),
Dr. Christopher (Kingsley Leggs), and Marianne (Lenne Klingaman).
How all these characters, and more (since several actors play
multiple roles), interact will be left undisclosed here. Most of
them are complex, with the struggles for power intense; only a few of
the characters are simple. The
plot(s) are complex, too, and are a
lot of fun as each one is revealed.
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| The Cast of "Fingersmith" (photo: Evgenia Eliseeva) |
The impressive and versatile ensemble is a wonder and
nearly impeccable (Bania needs to slow down his delivery so as to be
more intelligible). Especially brilliant are the two female leads,
Chimo and Lind. The creative team has conjured up fantastic Scenic
Design by Christopher Acebo, impressive Costume Design by Deborah
Dryden (with Lind's costumes by Carmel Dundon), crucial Lighting
Design by Jen Schriever, eerily appropriate Sound Design and cello
composition by Andre Pluess, and restrained but imaginative Video
Design by Shawn Sagady. Acebo's revolving sets are especially
awe-inspiring, from rowboats to carriages to instantaneous dissolves,
but there is absolutely seamless work all around.
And that's about all one can say except to urge you to
see this fascinating and surprising play while you can, as it's a
masterful achievement on every level. Time and again you may find
yourself comparing this work to that of Dickens. Where it diverges
from the Dickensian model is in identifying anyone to root for, at
least at first, even if you favor strong feminine characters and
gender politics in general. In the printed version of her work, the
playwright aptly quotes the late theologian/philosopher Teilhard de
Chardin: “Someday after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides
and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then
for the second time in the history of the world, man will have
discovered fire”. Or, as Chardin also said, and will only be
alluded to cryptically here: “Everything that rises must converge”.
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