Fringe, Reviewed: The Yellow Wallpaper
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"It's a smart reading of the story."
[ theater ]
The Yellow Wallpaper, by Wild Plum Productions
Attended: Tues. Sept. 16, 7:30 p.m., Shubin Theatre; closes Sept. 7:30 p.m.
A woman ... gradually becomes fascinated and then obsessed by the wallpaper (and what lies behind it) in a room.
WE THINK:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1892 short story has been adapted many times for radio, television and the stage. Its journal entries, written by a woman virtually imprisoned by her doctor-husband so that she can recover from a "temporary nervous depression -- a slight hysterical tendancy" (not an unusual diagnosis for a woman of those times), make an intriguing dramatic monologue with feminist themes. At heart, though -- and this really comes out on stage -- it's a deliciously gothic descent into madness.
Christine Emmert and Katherine Mallon-Day, who scripted and perform the story, stay close to the original; however, Emmert voices all the woman's thoughts from the side, while Mallon-Day plays the woman actually trapped in the oppressive room (nicely realized on the Shubin's cozy stage by Richard Emmert). They occasionally say lines in unison, an effective touch that amplifies her confinement.
While the play's haunting finale didn't seem to come off as intended on opening night, it's a smart reading of the story. Emmert's recitation of the woman's thoughts is relentlessly cheerful, leaving the horror of her situation for us to realize as it sneaks up on the woman. Mallon-Day's job is tougher, and she sometimes tries to do too much; she should trust that we can see her thinking and feeling without trying to pantomime the process.
