By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by Jeff Smith
Clarissa Dalloway (Cynthia Jeffery) feels more than she says to Peter Walsh (Joseph McGrath) in their complicated relationship.
Cynthia Jeffery gives the performance of her life in the deftly understated role of Clarissa Dalloway for The Rogue Theatre's fully conceived adaptation of Virginia Woolf's iconic stream of consciousness novel “Mrs Dalloway.”
Without employing any screams or otherwise emotional writhing, Jeffery found deceptive ways to bring out the trouble depths of her character, a reserved upper class intellectual who wanted more from life than the usual portion that proper women in 1923 London were apt to receive.
Cynthia Meier's adaptation to the stage isn't so much about having actors tell the story of the book as it is about giving Woolf's words a three-dimensional presentation.
“The script is 98% completely Woolf's words,” says Meier in the program notes. So thorough is Meier's concept, as well as her artistic choices as director, that watching “Mrs Dalloway” feels like reading the novel. There is a deep satisfaction of spirit one seldom associates with theater. An uplifting of oneself, of being swept away with a completeness beyond mere description.
Holding his own opposite Jeffery is Joseph McGrath as the unfulfilled Peter Walsh. Once upon a time, in the layered shadows of their youth, Peter and Clarissa felt that romantic tug for each other.
But she was marrying the well-placed Richard Dalloway and Peter was wandering off to India for several years. Being sensible in their decisions was keeping them apart.
This splendid stage vision, however, is so much more than plot points.
There is a general structure to the proceedings. Everything takes place during a single day in the life of Clarissa, but her internal thoughts span decades of memories as well as the anticipation of an uncertain future where aging is accompanied by a dimming of one's own importance.
Well into her 50s now, Clarissa muses that as she grew older she “became known as Mrs. Richard Dalloway – that was all.”
Providing a sharp contrast is the younger man Septimus Warren Smith (Christopher Johnson), a tragic veteran of the World War, suffering from “shell shock” as they called it.
Adding fiber to his suffering is the pithy performance of Carley Elizabeth Preston as Smith's caring wife Lucrezia.
A cast of 12 is said to play some 60 characters adding to the flow of poetic language exploring a palette of themes defined by life and death, sanity and insanity, the British social system, the importance of love, the frequency of memory tweaking the future and the fallibility of character.
And yet, miracle of miracles, there is always a believability of pace and a clarity of intention that becomes inspirational. Mention should be made of cast member Matt Bowdren also serving as assistant director.
Adding inestimably as Music Director and composer is pianist Russell Ronnebaum, joined onstage playing violin and viola by Janine Patawaran Piek.
“Mrs Dalloway” continues through May 15 in The Rogue Theatre, 300 E. University Blvd., with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. The running time is 2:20, including a 10-minute intermission.
Tickets are $42, with an assortment of discounts available. For details, telephone 520-551-2053, email ticket@theroguetheatre.org or visit www.theroguetheatre.org
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