[NEohioPAL] Review of "Nicholas Nickleby" at Rabbit Run Theater

[Bob Abelman]

>From page to stage, 'Nicholas Nickleby' is a barnburner

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald on 7/13/12

 

A year or so ago, when the good folks at Rabbit Run Theater announced that The Light in the Piazza was part of their summer stock season, the response from most theater insiders was astonishment.  

 

Rabbit Run Theater is a barn with a stage and a limited budget.  How can it effectively produce a play that takes place in Rome and Florence?  The show's music and lyrics are operatic in nature and Italian is spoken throughout the production.  How will it find the talent to pull this off?   

 

It can and it did.    

 

And now Rabbit Run is attempting the epic "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby," an immensely challenging enterprise for any theater.     

 

Based on Charles Dickens' lengthy third novel published in the early 1800s, "The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" is a nine-hour stage play by David Edgar that was first performed over two evenings by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980.  The play required 46 actors, who took on 300 roles.  Cleveland's Great Lakes Theater acquired the first American rights and performed the drama at the Ohio Theatre in 1982.

 

Rabbit Run is staging an abridged version of this play, requiring a mere six hours for its two-part telling and 35 actors to play more than 150 roles.  The first part of the production opened last weekend, with both parts being performed in repertory over the next few weeks.

 

Part one sets everything in motion by concentrating on the wickedness of money-broker Ralph Nickleby and his cold-hearted decision to send his nephew, young Nicholas Nickleby, out into the world to provide for his mother and sister so they are no longer the uncle's burden. Nicholas' adventures introduce him to abject poverty, truly dark and sinister souls and-as personified by his friendship with a severely deformed boy named Smike-the value of human decency, civility and charity, otherwise known as the Dickens trifecta.    

 

This production is superb.  

 

In a barn and on a budget, we are transported to the Victorian era, travel from crowded London to dreary Yorkshire to the bucolic countryside of Devonshire, and moved from tears to laughter and back again.  

 

All this is done on a set designed by Ray Beach that consists only of stairs and scaffolding.  It is decorated with random actors in authentic period costuming designed by Karen Ziegler, who are observing the action from the shadows designed by Clayton Sandham.  Platforms are rolled in and out to effectively represent storefronts, back rooms and carriages, and set pieces are brought on and off the stage with incredible stealth.

 

The play is performed by a core of professional actors and a talented ensemble of amateur players, who develop rich, textured characters and successfully communicate all that Dickens imbued in them.  Much of the play's dialogue is directly addressed to the audience, which serves to bring us into the action while providing Dickens' narrative voice and a taste of his eloquent writing.  

 

Rod O'Toole is phenomenal as Nicholas.  He wears his character's humanity on his sleeve and bears the weight of each moral decision as if Dickens himself were leaning on his shoulder and whispering in his ear.

 

Lincoln Sandham is heartbreaking as Smike.  He delivers the requisite pathos of all the "crippled" children in Dickens' novels, but does so with so much sensitivity, dignity and physicality that you can't take your eyes off him for fear of missing something memorable.

 

George Roth as Ralph Nickleby and David Malinowski as Squeers, the nasty sot who first employs Nicholas, own the stage upon their entrances and leave remnant discord in their wake.  They find depth in what could easily become caricature and are an absolute pleasure to watch.  The same can be said for Kelsey Bowens, who masterfully handles the bulk of the play's comedy as Fanny, Squeer's daughter who is smitten with Nicholas.

 

Still, this production is a group effort that includes the on-stage handiwork of Heather Arata, Ingrid Balstad, Brianna Beck, Nancy Brooks, Anna Davis, Norah DeMilta, Greg Gnau, Maggie Greg, Nick Grimsic, Tom Hill, Kathleen Horvath, Evie Koh, Alex Lane, Brint Learned, Maria Lister, Kyle Lorek, Pat Mazzarino, Erin McManus, Gina Mulh, Matt O'Herron, Sandy Peck, Sam Portzer, Sydney Portzer, Olivia Roth, Brendan Sandham, Kelly Smith, Matt Super, Kathe Tascone, Caitlin Van Niel and Dale Van Niel.  

 

The play's volumes of descriptive dialogue, abundance of short scenes, and mass of humanity are given life and meaning by a very imaginative director, Ann Hedger.  Her extensive efforts have resulted in an entertainment that unfolds with admirable fluidity, grace and intelligence.  

 

This marvelous production not only demonstrates that Dickens can be translated into absolutely riveting community theater when in the right hands, but bolsters Rabbit Run's reputation for turning difficult scripts into astonishing performances.

 

The second part of "Nicholas Nickleby" sets its focus on the principal players and their dramatic storylines.  For those who miss the first three hours of the play, all that transpired is recounted in the first 10 minutes of the second three-hour production.   

 

These six hours are certainly time well spent.

 

"The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby" continues through August 5 at Rabbit Run Theater, 5648 W. Chapel Rd., in Madison Township. For tickets, $17 to $19, call 440-428-7092 or visit www.rabbitrunonline.org.  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20120711/37a69329/attachment-0004.htm>