The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Review

  Last week, I attended a showing of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall written by Anne Bronë, adapted by Jacqueline Firkins and wonderfully directed by Sarah Rodgers. The play is based in the 1800’s, and has an interesting plot while also addressing feminism. The story describes a mysterious woman, Helen Graham, moving into Wildfell Hall. The small community around her begin to gossip about her arrival, and are curious to know more about her. Gilbert, an adored man is said to be bound to fall in love with Eliza Millward. However, once he meets Helen, he falls in love with her wit, strength and independence, something rare to see in woman at that time. Helen has just left her controlling husband, Arthur, in hopes of starting a new life  away from him with her son and her servant, Rachel. This play displays the struggle for woman to be independent of a man, while involving a touch of romance and humour.

In my opinion, Kelsey Ranshaw who plays Mrs. Wilson was the star of the show. She is a witty character who will do whatever she can to get a word of the latest gossip. She was humorous with her words, as well as her actions. For example, when she leaned over to try and hear the two men discussing Helen, her facial features were hysterical. Not only that, but since she was such a loudmouth, and couldn’t keep her mouth shut; it made her character so much more appealing to the audience.

Another great aspect of the play was the directing. The sets, lighting and spacing of everything really benefited the story line and play overall. Although there were no crazy sets or backdrops, the simplicity created more attention towards the characters. Between scenes the way actors changed the sets was choreographed to be synchronized which enhanced the simplicity of the play. The lighting also was executed very well, especially when Gilbert was reading Helen’s journal and walked to the front of the stage with the spotlight on him. It made the scene so much more heartfelt and dramatic, in the right way. In contrary to the simple setting, the costumes were flamboyant. The girls had on beautiful dresses with intricate patterns and coiled hair with a bonnet or a fancy hat. The men wore old fashioned suits and had on baggy trousers with vests. This made the characters seem like they were living lavishly everyday. Helen wore a black dress, although she was not as colourful as the other women her hair was still curled and done up nicely. This truly showed how Helen was different, her looks did not matter as much as it did to the other woman.

What i enjoyed most about this play was the idea that the idea of admiring a man for being a man became foolish. There is still a strong idea that males are dominant today, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall really showed the stupidity of it. Whenever the woman in the play would praise the men, the crowd began to laugh as if it was idiotic. This made the issue clear to the audience while still keeping the performance hilarious and upbeat.

Overall, this was a great performance; the performance was academic, yet entertaining. I would definitely recommend this to people. The storyline was well thought out, the characters were excellent (especially the little boy), and the overall performance was astounding.