'To The Lighthouse': Don't be afraid of Virginia Woolf

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 3, 2007 | by Pat CraigSTAFF

'TO THE LIGHTHOUSE" unfolds languidly, taking its own sweet time poking into the darkest corners of Ramsay family life revealing secrets that often surprise even those who are keeping them.

Good things do, indeed, come to those who wait, and exhibit A is the tantalizingly slow-moving Adele Edling Shank adaptation of the Virginia Woolf novel, which opened Wednesday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. This is not a story that moves to a contemporary beat. It is very much of its time and place, the Isle of Sky, the Hebrides, in 1910 Scotland.

There, time moves like a glacier, and members of the family and the assorted friends who stop by during these lazy summer months have the time and inclination to study nuance, look for motivation and speculate on the deepest, and shallowest, matters of human nature.

And it is this pace that makes Shank's play so breathtakingly wonderful. The play pushes the rules of theater in various new directions by blending dialogue, sound, scene, music and even silence into a captivating evening that manages to look at Woolf's material in a fresh light.

In terms of a story, there is nothing particularly earth- shattering here. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay (Edmond Genest and Monique Fowler) have been married for quite awhile and are pretty much comfortable in the confines of a familiar relationship -- no fireworks, but no gunfire, either. The kids are growing up -- the older ones dealing with breaking away, the younger ones simply dealing with a world of new minor annoyances arriving on an almost- daily basis.

The friends include William Bankes (Jarion Monroe), Mr. Ramsay's former best friend; Lily Briscoe (Rebecca Watson), an avid painter and spinster who is targeted by Mrs. Ramsay to marry Bankes; and Charles Tansley (David Mendelsohn), an annoying little fellow who manages to worm his way into the daily routine of the family.

What creates the magic, however, is the manner in which the story is told, beginning with a relatively traditional opening scene, with dialogue that seems only a tiny bit stilted. But surrounding that is an atmosphere of an alternative storytelling, which includes original music by Paul Dresher, video presentations by Jedediah Ike, a soundscape by Darron L. West that takes full advantage of the theater's state-of-the-art sound system, evocative lighting by Matt Frey and a wonderfully innovative scenic design by Annie Smart.

And all of these things, in one way or another, become characters of sorts, helping Shank and director Les Waters tell this unusual story.

Then, as the story moves along, there are new and captivating tools used to spin the tale and reach deeper into the souls of the characters. There is a dinner scene, for example, where the characters are enjoying and participating in a dinner, but the words they speak, contrary to what appears to be light suppertime banter, are their innermost thoughts.

But the most striking portion of the show is the musical second act, which is performed, for the most part without words, only Dresher's music to advance the story and mark the passage of time. Here, too, all of the multimedia elements are put into play to create not only an evocative piece of storytelling, but a unique piece of art.

The show covers about a 10-year period, which includes World War I, but years are only one way of measuring time here. There are lifetimes that play out over the course of the story.

Contact Pat Craig at (925) 945-4736.