KDHX Theatre Review - Diana Of Dobson's

Act Inc.
Reviewed by Richard Green

Act, Inc. closes a fine season this week with the obscure and nearly antique Diana Of Dobson's, a sort of cross between Shaw's Major Barbara and Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice: A young woman in possession of life's “larger truths” breaks the hearts of her betters, and is broken even from her own meager station by her defiance of convention. Happily, the whole Edwardian works is honored with surprisingly intimate moments and consistently immaculate performances on stage at Fontbonne University.

Director and FM88 theatre critic Steve Callahan sneaks in more human charm than you might get, just from reading the script (by Cicely Hamilton). A complex, half-lit set change is made balletic and winsome by a team of actresses in nightgowns and corsets, scurrying about. And in Fontbonne's black box theatre, Mr. Callahan establishes many little moments at one end of the stage or another, creating private little spaces on the beautifully furnished “hotel” set in the middle of the story. Fortunately for us, there are also scads of lovely wigs on display, when these private little moments are played away from us, making us romantic voyeurs, every time we get used to thinking purely in terms of social science.

Lilith Baker is relentlessly sensible in the title role, up till her own heart takes charge. Daniel Lanier is the boy who's clearly “all wrong” for her, foolish and flighty. FM88's own Chuck Lavazzi, as a rival suitor, is charming and clubby as an avuncular version of Sam Walton. Of course, the joke is on both men, as Diana (like Miss Elizabeth Bennett) has very little to recommend herself as a marriageable maiden, other than looks and brains.

Eleanor Mullin, like Mr. Lavazzi, continues to surprise us old-timers by growing and growing as a performer. Her Mrs. Cantalupe has almost four characters-in-one, as she deals out different moods and attitudes to each different social station around her, as smoothly as a hand of whist, as she patrols the hearts of the younger generation. Mr. Lavazzi generates ringing warmth and polished negotiating skills as a purveyor of cheap goods to the mass markets in turn-of-the-century England.

The cast is blessed with fine, true performances from the likes of Jenn Bock, Rory Lipede, Dorothy Davis, and Lynn Rathbone (as an implacable house-mistress). Ms.Bock is double-cast, first as a plummy laborer in team of ready-to-wear sales-girls, and later as a penniless old woman on a park bench. Ms. Lipede is delightful, once again, as a giggling co-worker. Dorothy Davis is one of Ms. Mullin's comfortable cohorts at the Hotel Engadine, in Switzerland. As if that weren't enough, Diana also boasts Michelle Hand (always ready with intelligence, charm and conviction on stage) and Hannah Gaebler as co-workers.

Ms. Hamilton, who wrote the play in 1906, was an English suffragist and relief worker in WWI, who did manage to re-invent herself more than once in her life, changing her name, abandoning a teaching job to become an actress, then as a playwright, and a voice for equal rights. Everything she had been, and everything she would become, is clearly represented in this, her first script, successfully revived in this new production. Very respectable costumes by Gregory Horton, and sets by Tim Grumich.

Diana Of Dobson's continues through October 3rd (2004) at Fontbonne University. Friday and Saturday at eight, and Sunday at two. For ticket information, call (314) 725-9108.


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