Review: Miss Buncle’s Book (Lifeline Theatre)

By Chicagotheaterbeat @chitheaterbeat

  
  
Miss Buncle’s Book 

Adapted by Christina Calvit
From the novel by D.E. Stevenson  
Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood (map)
thru Nov 1  |  tickets: $40  | more info
  
Check for half-price tickets  
  

  

  

Romantic and quirky, ‘Miss Buncle’ is a bemusing crowd-pleaser

  

  

Lifeline Theatre presents

  

Miss Buncle’s Book

Review by Clint May 

Fittingly, Lifeline Theatre’s latest literary adaptation begins with an over-the-top homage to traditional English tea. All English civilization, it exhorts, rests on the edge of a china cup. Like the tea and scones that figure so prominently, Miss Buncle’s Book is a bit of old school traditional escapist fare with extra cream and two—if not three—sugars.

Written in the depths of The Great Depression (when audiences clamored even more than usual to escape reality), D.E. Stevenson sets her spinster eponym in the dire straits of losing the ‘dividends’ that support her meek rural lifestyle. After looking at other avenues, she leans into her greatest strength—quietly observing the quirks and foibles of her neighbors. She changes her town of Silverstream to Copperfield and pens a bestseller of thinly veiled but accurately sketched characters that is satire to the city dwellers and tawdry gossip to her fellow pastoralites.

When Miss Buncle (Jenifer Tyler) finds her ‘Disturber of the Peace’ (written under the nom de plume ‘John Smith’) in the hands of her neighbors, she quickly discovers that her takedown of their hubris-laden exteriors is creating a scandal for some and serving as inspiration for others. Art imitates life as life imitates art and back again, and the journey begins to transform Miss Buncle herself as her affection for her agent Mr. Abbot (Peter Greenberg) takes on a thrilling life of its own.

Christina Calvit’s adaptation is faithful, sometimes to a fault. The run time is padded with an exposition-heavy first act, mimicking the source’s multi-character viewpoints. Gratefully, the second act dispenses with world-building and starts delightfully paying off on the conflicts and love interests established. There’s a balance of energy and honesty that Director Dorothy Milne hasn’t found in every character, and it’s the women who truly shine while most of their male counterparts seem wooden by comparison. Katie McLean Hainsworth is hilarious as a burlesque girl turned socialite who leads the whodunit brigade to pillory John Smith. Kate Hildreth is pitch-perfect with a nose—and a performance—turned up to the sky. Camping and vamping to beat the band, Elise Kauzlaric leaves almost nothing of Donahue’s spartan set for the others to chew as a golddigger with her sights set on a wealthy young vicar (Chris Vizurraga).

At times the entirety gets borderline overwrought, but whenever the focus snaps back to Buncle and Abbot the show finds its heart and all is well again. Tyler and Greenberg create a lovely chemistry and have the appropriate balance of whimsy and realism (a scene at a movie theater is particularly well-constructed). Miss Buncle’s earnestness and inability to see herself as she truly is shines through with Lifeline regular Tyler, who has an ability to deliver lovably dry wit with a body language reminiscent of Tina Fey.

Featherlight farce has always been welcome at Lifeline, and Miss Buncle’s Book proudly continues that tradition. The British obsession with appearances has always been a beloved and relatively easy target of satire. Miss Buncle’s Book falls into the same sub-genre as “Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day” or “Mrs Henderson Presents” with a coziness that reaches out to envelop the audience.

Now if they could only satisfy the desire for some real English-style tea that anyone who has viewed the show is sure to have upon exiting.

  

Rating: ★★★

  

  

Miss Buncle’s Book continues through November 1st at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood  (map), with performances Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays 4pm and 8pm, Sundays 4pm.  Tickets are $40 (seniors: $30/students: $20), and are available by phone (773-761-4477) or online through PrintTixUSA.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at LifelineTheatre.com.  (Running time: 2 hours, includes an intermission)

Photos by Suzanne Plunkett 

  

artists

cast

Peter Greenberg (Mr. Abbott, Mr. Durnet), Elise Kauzlaric (Mrs. Greensleeves, Miss King), Katie McLean Hainsworth (Mrs. Featherstone Hogg),  Jenifer Tyler (Barbara Buncle), Kate Hildreth (Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Walker), Kristina Loy (Sally, Margaret), Martel Manning (Stephen Bulmer, Dr. Walker), Tiffany Oglesby (Sarah Walker, Dorothea Bold), Sean Siniski (Col. Weatherhead, Mr. Featherstone Hogg), Chris Vizurraga (Ernest Hathaway, Mr. Fortunum)

behind the scenes

Dorothy Milne (director), Christina Calvit (adaptor), Alan Donahue (scenic and properties design), Kevin D. Gawley (lighting design), Shole Milos (choreographer), Becky Bishop (stage manager), Benjamin W. Dawson (production manager), Izumi Inaba (costume design), Anthony Ingram (sound design), Lavina Jadhwani (casting director), Annaliese McSweeney (dramaturg), Sam Moryoussef (master electrician & A/V supervisor), Joe Schermoly (technical director), Cody Michael Schmidt (assistant stage manager), Kendra Thulin (dialect coach), Suzanne Plunkett (photos)

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