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| Kate Burton as Miss Moffat; photo: Joan Marcus |
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A little education can be a dangerous thing, but a lot of education, concentrated and focused, can be more powerful than even the basic emotions that form human nature. A mind untethered from the functions of the daily grind can move mountains, create miracles. In Emlyn Williams semi-autobiographical play, "The Corn is Green" now on the main stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, education is the issue at the heart of an evening’s entertainment and it is entertaining.
A middle-aged English woman with an inheritance moves to a small mining town in Wales and sets up a school for the miners. It is her intent to enlighten them and bring them out of the darkness in which they live, not just the darkness of the mine, but that peculiar range of limited light provided to the basically uneducated: the darkness born of the complacency of ignorance.
One pupil in her rough school, Morgan Evans, shows a special talent for observation and his writing inspires her to make him her model student. She almost fails at the task, but in the end she manipulates the incorrigible student into addressing his future smartly.
It is, admittedly, not much of a plot. Not a sexy plot, anyway. To make up for that, Williams gives Morgan a sexual escapade, a drunken lark, and a moment of triumph swamped by a season of guilt. It’s still not much of a plot, and certainly not one with a bunch of surprising twists and turns. It is a straightforward story, and in the hands of the company of players in this Berkshire Summer venue it is an experience that educates an audience made happy to learn what the tale teaches. Much of this is due to the excellent work of director Nicholas Martin who knows how to grab our attention and hold it fast. He provides the light bulb inside his actor's brains and hearts, letting them turn it on, off when needed and on again.
Kate Burton shines as Miss Moffat. She glows with pride every time she accomplishes something. She find humor in the oddest people and situations. Burton presides with ease, not majesty, over the little court she has assembled. Her Moffat is believable and that is an accomplishment for a character written with too much admiration and too much love by Williams. Moffat is an ideal but in Burton’s hands she is not someone on a pedestal, a turn of the 19th century Gibson Girl, but someone whose bicycle has a function, whose purpose is decisive and whose figure is better than she would let it be. A very memorable creation for Burton, whose Hedda Gabler, here, has long dominated my memory, Moffat in her hands is viable, a living and breathing creature dominated by intent.
Morgan Evans is played by Burton’s real life son, Morgan Ritchie. In an odd way it is a linear, rather than intuitive, performance for him. His grandfather’s own story of education and growth in a small Welsh town, mirrors that of Williams and his character Morgan. Now we have Richard Burton’s grandson portraying that theatrical version of a life very close to his own heritage. The best news in all this is that he is a good actor and he pulls off all the elements of the Welshman with which we are familiar: taciturn, charismatic, drunkard, seductive, lethargic, enthusiastic and belligerent. He would seem to be the logical next step, next generation in this family legacy. His performance gives hope for a career that may never eclipse that of his forebears but one that will honor and continue the Burton traditions.
Together they spark, Moffat and Morgan, mother and son.
They are surrounded by some excellent players in this production. Becky Ann Baker as Mrs. Watty, the housekeeper and reformed pickpocket is a delight. Williams has written her wrong, her final scene practically unplayable, but Baker almost managed to pull it off. Tom Bloom as Moffat’s oldest student, Old Tom, gives good laughs with honesty and character. Amanda Leigh Cobb has fun as the postmistress Sarah Pugh.
Rod McLachlan is an excellent John Jones, a man who works for Moffat, stands up for what he believes in and who tries to always be the best person he can be. Kathy McCafferty’s Miss Ronberry is an odd match, too young, too pretty perhaps to pull off the role with complete credibility, but she acts up a storm and within that obvious acting makes the character her own, in her own way. Dylan Baker is a hilariously bumptious Squire. Ginnifer Goodwin as Bessie Watty is a nicer "bad" girl, more petulant, lass sassy, than any I’ve seen and it works. She does a pleasant and interesting job.
The sumptuous cottage set designed by James Noone is a problem for the production. Perhaps it is something in the physical relationship of the stage to the audience in the ‘62 Center main stage theater, but for a great many people seated on the right side of the house much of the action was lost in the upstage positions which were completely unseen by them. Other than that it served the play well. But Director Martin should have been aware of the alienation of his audience when he staged major moments out of sight of so many of them.
Jeff Mahshie’s costumes were a shade too elegant for Moffat and just about right for everyone else, although the period of Morgan’s dress clothes seemed a tiny bit questionable. Frances Aronson’s lighting was effective when it was correct. Opening night there were many technical difficulties with the lights but assuredly the theater will correct these flaws by the next performance.
The Corn is Green happens to be one of those plays where you come out at the end having learned something, and that is education but in this case it is also entertainment. The value of such a good piece is that the period doesn’t matter if the people are relevant and Moffat is particularly relevant today in a world where education takes a back seat to testing and inspiration is almost a thing of the past.
◊08/03/2007◊
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