Long-time American Repertory Theatre actor Karen MacDonald switches sides of the footlights to direct this “ghost play,” which depends not just on thespian conviction but on atmospherics. With regard to the former, Bolman’s actor invests young Kipps with a lively innocence and genuine terror. And as the actor, he’s thoroughly delighted with what he perceives to be an effect supplied by his otherwise theatrically inexperienced partner. But Barkhimer really has to rub his belly and pat his head at the same time, investing the older Kipps with stuffy, overblown urgency and the narration with mounting dread while portraying most of the stock supporting characters with quick-shifting eyes and tongue in cheek.
That MacDonald works well with actors comes as no surprise. More impressive is how well, given limited means, the director, abetted by Kenneth Helvig’s murky lighting and Ben Emerson’s radio-like sound design, manages the mood. At least in their early appearances, apparitions do float in and out of darkness. And things really do seem to go bump in the night. Unfortunately, one of them is the script.
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Topics:
Theater
, Steven Barkhimer, David Reynoso, Karen MacDonald, More
, Steven Barkhimer, David Reynoso, Karen MacDonald, Charles Dickens, Shelley Bolman, American Repertory Theatre, Less
