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• Bringing Fanny Kemble to life Bringing Fanny Kemble to life The one-woman play marks the second collaboration between Ventfort Hall and Shakespeare & Co. In the world of the drama nothing can be more compelling than a character who comes to an unseen fork in the road. And if that fork offers the choice between staying in a marriage or holding fast to one's beliefs, all the better. That is one of the paramount dilemmas that faced legendary 19th century actress Fanny Kemble -- and may prove one of the defining moments in this year's collaboration between the Ventfort Hall Association and Shakespeare and Company, which presents "Fanny Kemble’s Lenox Address" as a one-woman show through Aug. 31 at Ventfort Hall. The production signals the second time the two organizations have collaborated to tell the tale of a well-known Lenox resident. Last year the two presented "The Color of War" -- a dramatization of Robert Gould Shaw's professional and personal struggles through correspondence he sent to his wife Annie Haggerty, who lived in Lenox during the Civil War. Kemble, like Haggerty, also lived in Lenox, in a house called "The Perch" across the street from Canyon Ranch on East Street. The street was later named in her honor. In telling Kemble's tale, Ventfort Hall and Shakespeare & Company posit the drama amid one of the darkest moments in the nation’s history -- the era of slavery. Portrayed by actress Elizabeth Raetz and directed by Andrew Borthwick-Leslie, the one-woman show is designed as a portal into the heart and psyche of a hugely popular actress who was thrown into the maelstrom of the slavery issue -- an issue which would define her as a fervent abolitionist. That same abolitionism would later end her marriage. Kemble set foot on American shores in 1832 to much fanfare. Kemble, an untrained actress, had acting in her genes -- having been born into the Siddons family, which included the famous actress Sarah Siddons. One of her specialties would become interpretations of Shakespeare's plays. Her acting prowess allowed her to summon the snarl of Caliban and the tenderness of Miranda in equal measure. It was during her maiden visit and tour of the U.S. that she met the smitten Pierce Butler, grandson of Revolutionary War veteran Major Pierce Butler. She would later fall in love with him not knowing that the Butler family owned two plantations that held 632 slaves. Kemble later married Butler, still unaware that Butler's wealth included the holding of slaves. When Kemble made her first trip to his inherited plantations she was horrified by what she saw. She did not mince words in her descriptions of the suffering and injustice that she saw there over four months, descriptions which were to form the basis of "A Journal of a Residence On a Georgian Plantation" -- one of the most personal and in-depth explorations of slavery by a northern abolitionist. Needless to say, Kemble's staunch abolitionism and independent nature did not grow on Butler. In a very long and public divorce, the likes that would have earned hours of screen time today on Fox News and CNN, Kemble lost custody of her two children and was awarded a $1,500 yearly alimony. Kemble returned to her native England and quickly made a name for herself as a master interpreter of Shakespearean plays. For Butler, gambling losses as high as $700,000, and poor investments forced him to auction off his assets -- and most of his slaves. For some, Kemble's tale is one of fervent abolitionism. But for director Borthwick-Leslie it was a tale frought with character revelation. "After I read the script and began learning more about Kemble I became a huge fan of the woman," said Borthwick-Leslie. "It's such an important story.” After reading John Gardner's script, Borthwick-Leslie ingested all he could on Kemble -- most notaby the definitive works on Kemble’s life by Catharine Clinton. One of the unique qualities about Kemble's life that greatly impacted the directing process for Borthwick-Leslie was Kemble’s history as an accomplished actress. "That allows a certain playfulness and spontaneity to the directing and to the performance," he said. That fact allowed actor Elizabeth Raetz a wide boundary from which to draw dramatic influences and prompts during her 75 minutes on stage, according to Borthwick-Leslie. And to keep the rehearsal process fresh when there is only one actor to direct, Borthwick-Leslie tried some novel approaches. "One of the things we did when we broke up the script was to name the different parts of Fanny," said Borthwick-Leslie. Some of the differing parts of the Kemble personality, as fleshed out by director and actress, include some of the very roles that Kemble was famous for portraying on-stage -- like Portia from the "A Winters Tale” and Hermoine from "The Merchant of Venice”. As a result, the acting, which could have veered into straight one character dramatization, is left free to explore the Kemble psyche. Another of the rehearsal devices used to help Raetz explore Kemble's character was a periodic, but intense, grilling process. "I aggressively quizzed her like a divorce lawyer to make her justify the choices that she made with marriage in her life," Borthwick-Leslie said. "This helped her develop the facility to stand up for Fanny in many ways. "I want it to seem to the audience that Fanny was really going through something," he added. "Instead of Fanny explaining what she was going through I wanted the audience to see her figuring things out.” The play is staged at Venfort Hall's Great Hall which encompasses the mansion’s grand staircase. In "Fanny Kemble" the staircase and its landing are transformed into a striking part of the play’s narrative. Borthwick-Leslie believes that staging the work at Ventfort Hall adds a certain authenticity to the performance. "We were ecstatic to be rehearsing there," said Borthwick-Leslie, who confessed a weakness for found spaces. "There's nothing like a set that has a certain resonance, one that’s been lived in as a home where a family has been raised.”
In this case the family are descendants of J.P. Morgan clan. The house is an excellent example of Elizabethan Revival style designed by Boston architects Rotch & Tilden, and built in 1893 at a cost of $900,000. It was the most expensive house of its kind at the time, boasting 35 rooms, 17 bedrooms and a bowling alley in the basement. The collaboration between the Ventfort Hall Association and Shakespeare and Company is seen as a novel way to keep the museum vibrant during its restoration period which began six years ago and is not yet complete. "This signals a trend for Ventfort Hall," said Ventfort Hall programming consultant Tom Hayes. "Part of the interpretation of that era are the plays that we do. This is one way of interpreting the history of the Berkshires.” And as far as histories go, Lenox's is inextricably linked to that period of Americana called the Gilded Age, where fortunes were made in industry and legions of immigrants entered the country. With 75 "cottages" from that era dotting the Lenox landscape there can be no denying that Lenox, whcih was known as the "inland Newport" at the time, was on the summer minds of wealthy industrialists and the well-to-do that lived in Boston and New York City. "We find that so many people have a hard time finding the Gilded Age mansions so we gradually plan on becoming the central source for that lifestyle and its architecture," said Hayes. Hayes would like nothing more than to present professional theater at the mansion again next year. For Shakespeare and Company veteran and "Kemble" co-producer Michael Hammond, the play may prove part of an ongoing partnership between Ventfort Hall and the venerable theater company. "We're certainly thinking of this a long term relationship, " said Hammond. "To a certain extent they're coming to us for expertise and dramatic resources ... but I think we need to follow their lead in what they are presenting," Hammond added. "Fanny Kemble's Lenox Address" will be performed Wednesdays at 7:30, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 4 and Sundays at 10 a.m., through Aug. 31. Call 637-3206 for tickets. Ventfort Hall is located at 104 Walker St., Lenox. |
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