Playwright: adapted by Christina Calvit from the novel by Jane Austen. At: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Tickets: 773-761-4477; www.lifelinetheatre.com; $32-$35. Runs through: June 10
Decades before Bluestockings and Steampunk Lolitas made Jane Austen and her literary sisters into the icons they are today, Christina Calvit was forging her reputation on meticulously-crafted page-to-stage adaptations of classics from the age of romanticism (along with its latter-day descendants—Georgette Heyer, et al.), spawning a series of lucrative productions for Lifeline Theatre, many of which have since enjoyed international exposure.
The reasons for this acclaim are immediately apparent in this revival—its second since premiering in the company's third season—of Austen's most popular novel. The first words uttered onstage locate us firmly in the society preoccupied with money and matrimony that was fashionable England in 1813. Once we are apprised that the financial solvency of whole families could depend on their offspring marrying well, we comprehend fully why Mrs. Bennet calculates her five daughters' courtship potential with the ruthless concentration of a general plotting strategic maneuvers. Since such schemes never succeed—not in literature, anyway—the four damsels destined for the altar discover their matches, after much deliberation, in suitors of similar values and temperament, rather than mercenary considerations (though the strictures of this literary genre dictate that nobody finish destitute).
What most distinguishes this Lifeline production is not the dazzling repartee swapped by a cast of shining new faces, augmented by seasoned troupers boasting gravitas to spare, nor is it Melania Lancy's boat-in-the-bottle scenic design or Bill Morey's scrumptious costumes, but the attention bestowed by director Elise Kauzlaric on environmental ambience, down to the smallest details of acceptable decorum. At the social gatherings where most of the plot development occurs, auxiliary personnel are not left to ruminate in corners like grazing cattle, but instead are assigned activities—writing letters, playing cards, or dancing exuberantly to Christopher Kriz and Natalie Turner-Jones' museum-accurate period quadrilles, cotillions and reels.
Increasing the kinetic element places fresh emphasis on the impetuosity associated with an ethos elevating intuition over reason. Even our level-headed heroine—played with wholesome candor by Laura McClain—frequently confides coy asides to her audience (at one point, beseeching a spectator's assistance in repelling an unwanted advance). In a theater season rife with squalid sprawl, the results make for two hours of giddy merriment that never exceeds the boundaries of civilized protocol.
