I CAPTURE THE CASTLE
Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre,
36 Madison Ave., Madison, N.J.
By Terry Teachout
Part of what makes "I Capture the Castle" so fine a novel is that it is written with a Jane Austen-like grasp of the complexity of human motivation. Not only are Cassandra and Rose wholly convincing personalities, but so is James (Matt Bradford Sullivan), their father, a hopelessly blocked writer who published one near-masterpiece, then succumbed to depression and now spends his days reading mysteries. His depression, which has plunged the Mortmains into a poverty that is quite a bit less than genteel, is portrayed with sharp-eyed realism, as are the pretensions of Topaz (Erika Rolfsrud), his second wife, a former artists' model whom Cassandra and Rose both consider to be "bogus" (though Cassandra knows her to be rather nicer than she seems).
It's impressive how much of this Ms. Smith has managed to get onto the stage, just as she succeeds in suggesting the precocious wit of Cassandra's first-person narration. Though the stage version is lighter in tone than the novel, it works on its own terms, and if the 14-person cast were smaller, I expect that it would be taken up at once by other regional theaters, given its natural appeal to those who can't watch "Pride and Prejudice" often enough on TV.
I've concentrated on the play because it's unfamiliar, but I could have written at similar length about the production. Each member of the cast catches the exact tone of his or her character, above all Ms. Mozo, who brings off with sweet grace the tricky task of showing us Cassandra's discovery of the hurt of romantic love. I was also much taken with Ms. Rolfsrud, who makes Topaz both absurd and lovable. Mr. Watson's staging is admirably subtle, though that doesn't stop the members of the audience from laughing uproariously at every twist in the plot, as well they should.
Harry Feiner, the set designer, has done some of the best-looking work I've seen onstage in this part of the country, including Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's own "A Streetcar Named Desire" and the remarkable "Waiting for Godot" that he created for Two River Theater of Red Bank, N.J., in 2006. Not surprisingly, he makes the interior of the Mortmain castle so believable-looking that you can all but smell the stagnant water in the moat outside. Hugh Hanson's costumes move with equal ease from the patched-up hand-me-downs of the first scene to the ballroom gown that symbolizes Cassandra's transformation into a full-grown woman.
It's easy to get to Madison from anywhere in the New York area, and since it's unlikely that "I Capture the Castle" will move to Manhattan, why not take matters into your own hands and go see it? I've seen seven Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey shows, all of them superior, and this one might be the best yet.—
Mr. Teachout, the Journal's drama critic, blogs about theater and the other arts at www.terryteachout.com.
