An Austen Heirloom for the Holidays Happy Now? No, Not So Much

What’s this? A cast of fourteen actors playing twenty characters? A tale of manners and courtship in 19th Century England? Not a new playwright, just an adaptor? What’re the Ross Valley Players thinking, producing Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice?” for 2010 audiences? After eighty-one seasons, shouldn’t they know better?

As it happens, they know a good script. Jon Jory’s 2005 adaptation is a fast-moving, fun presentation of the 1813 Austen classic. Its characters are engaging and their emotions recognizable, but their social environment is almost two centuries away. Here’s etiquette so exquisitely refined that a young man’s request to use his sweetheart’s given name almost suggests an engagement. Here the lack of a governess in a home with children is regarded as scandalous neglect. But even more, the pressure to marry at the appropriate time is a cultural necessity. Without it, women face lives of economic distress, and bachelors face social disapproval. Mrs. Bennet assumes, “A single man of large fortune must be in want of a wife.”

At least, she hopes that’s the case because the Bennet home has five unmarried daughters, all of them “out,” or marriageable, and the inheritance laws of the time will not allow women to be heirs. So if dear Mr. Bennett should pass away before his daughters are wed, his estate would go to his nearest male cousin and lawyer, the detestable clergyman, Mr. Collins, instead of to a son-in-law. Mr. Collins is more than willing to do his duty; he’ll marry the Bennet’s daughter, Elizabeth. But when Lizzie is unwilling, he picks somebody else.

Clearly, Lizzie is too proud. She’s even prejudiced against young Mr. Darcy, who has been watching her at the Assembly Ball, but is said to have “an extremely critical eye.” The two engage in a crisp and prickly dialogue that shows they are made for each other.

Family and social connections are all over the place in “Pride and Prejudice,” but when everyone isn’t minding everyone else’s business, they take time to sit civilly and discuss the events of the day. The play is a period piece brought up to date with artistry and care, a nicely polished old jewel.

Phoebe Moyer directed the Ross Valley production according to the Jory script and added a raked stage with wings, similar to the stages in the 18th Century. The actors themselves or costumed stagehands arrange minimal props without interrupting the plays’s brisk pacing.

Lori Dorfman is a perfect Elizabeth Bennet, balanced and uncompromising. Her impossible mother is played by Pamela Ciochetti, with Alex Ross as the patient, long-suffering father. Caitlin Evenson is Lizzie’s compliant and dreamy younger sister Jane, with Ariel Harrison, Beth Deitchman, and Rachel Watts completing the Bennet family.

Erik Rhea portrays the aloof and high-minded Mr. Darcy, and Michael Cassidy doubles as both Jane’s suitor, Mr. Bingley, and Fitzwilliam, one of the cousins. Aaron Malberg is convincing as the ingratiating Mr. Collins, and British-born Judy Holmes takes a commanding turn as his dowager guardian. (She’s also, if you look closely, the Housekeeper.) Craig Neibaur, Nicole Zeller and Kurt Gundersen round out this large and capable cast.

“Pride and Prejudice” will be performed through December 12 at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center, Ross. Shows are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m.Sundays, November 28 and December 5 and 12, and 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, December 2 and 9. Tickets are $15-$25. They may be ordered online at www.brownpapertickets.com, by phone, 800-838-3006, from the box office, 456-9555, or purchased at the door.

Marin Theatre Company advertises its new production, “Happy Now?” as a “scathingly funny new British play.” For those who revel in snarky British comedy, who go giddy waiting for the next Ayckbourn, these words inspire delicious hope. Unfortunately, “Happy Now?” doesn’t deliver. It’s familiar and edgy; it’s not funny.

This is the story of a career woman in the sandwich generation, pressed between the demands of her parents and her children. Do we all know Kitty? Have we even been Kitty? This is not a new story, but it is a new play.

Jasson Minadakis, MTC’s Artistic Director and the Director of this production, first saw Lucinda Coxon’s “Happy Now?” in 2005 in Atlanta. It had its world premiere in 2008 in London. The Mill Valley presentation is the play’s West Coast premiere.

In “Happy Now?” Kitty’s parents are long divorced. One is crazy, and one is always on the brink of dying. Her children are offstage, their voices amplified through the audience, and her husband is navigating his career change from successful lawyer to harried elementary school teacher. The couple’s social life centers around Miles, an alcoholic friend, and Bea, his despised wife. When the four are together, they drink a lot and tease Kitty’s gay best friend, Carl. The only character who seems happy at all is Michael, a character Kitty runs into at bars in the course of her work travels. Michael admits that he’s happy when he’s pursuing women outside of his marriage. He is now making moves on Kitty and predicts that she will change her mind about him. Is he right about that?

The story is essentially dark, but there are some laughs in it. When Carl’s out of earshot, Miles makes jokes about Carl’s twenty-something boyfriend, Tony. Says Miles, “You know what I see when I look in his eyes? The back of his head.” And the wall of paint swatches at Miles and Bea’s – each shade of beige almost identical to the next – brings chuckles of recognition. The biggest laugh, however, comes when Kitty visits her mother, and Mom bears a striking resemblance to Michael, mustache and all.

The play’s scenic designer, Melpomene Katakalos, has created a remarkable set of floating screens around a modern kitchen with bar. The screens change to suit the scene and mood, from a hotel bar to a giant, throbbing heart monitor. But the multi-cartoon backdrop for Mom’s house is baffling.

The acting in “Happy Now?” is superb. Kitty is played by Rosemary Garrison, who holds control over her nerve-shattered character. Kitty could be shrill, but Ms. Garrison keeps her in line. Alex Moggridge is Johnny, her sincere, idealistic and clueless husband. Miles, is portrayed in different shades of inebriation by the talented Mark Anderson Phillips. Millie Stickney is Bea, who appears to grow onstage. Steady, dependable Carl is played by Kevin Rolston, and Andrew Hurteau has the best part as the philandering Michael and as Kitty’s dotty mother.

But the play’s troubling first act never resolves, and the question in the title is never answered. We can only wonder what Ms. Coxon had in mind when she set out to write.

“Happy Now?” will play at the Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley through December 5. Shows are at 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, and Sundays at 7 p.m. with matinees November 27 and December 2. Ticket prices range from $33 to $53. For complete information, see www.marintheatre.org or call the box office at 388-5208.