It is a well-known fact that, at the time of their initial production, Shakespeare's plays were performed by an entirely male cast. Though the Bard never saw a woman perform in any one of his female roles, many actresses have since taken them on with great success.
Rebekah Maggor's "Shakespeare's Actresses in America" with the Huntington Theatre Company pays tribute to these great actresses in American theater. Her one-woman play is a recreation of sixteen famous portrayals of Shakespeare's female characters. Through research and study of recordings, Maggor has brought sixteen famous or, in some cases infamous, actresses to life on the stage of the Wimberly Theatre.
The concept is unusual, to be sure. Maggor never plays herself in the play, but rather uses the famous character of Margaret Webster as the narrator of the hour-long production. Maggor as Webster educates the audience about each actress's story - both her past and how well she was received for the role the audience catches a glimpse of in the production.
Maggor, both the creator and performer of the piece, thrives in the emotionally exhaustive play. She has given herself a unique opportunity: Instead of only interpreting the roles of Desdemona from "Othello" or Ophelia from "Hamlet," she interprets other actresses' interpretations. Character choices and style are already pre-determined for Maggor, and her job is to make the case for other actress's choices, as well as for the Shakespearean characters themselves.
One thing truly remarkable in Maggor's performance is her ability to travel nearly seamlessly from an actress in one era to another. As Webster, she introduces each actress and the monologue that actress will perform, then slips with a blink into that other person.
In a few cases she gives herself more time to transform with a slow turn or a dramatic lighting change, but these are not the most effective segues. The most powerful moments are when she switches actresses more abruptly, as when she plays both Olivia and Viola in "Twelfth Night," and the audience is taken aback by her ability to transition without batting an eyelash.
The set is kept mercifully minimal. With only one actress on stage, and with her physical movement only as lively as her long gown allows, the lone couch is set enough, and Maggor is never battling with the set for the audience's attention. When an ethereal setting is more appropriate, as with Titania's monologues in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," lighting specials provide what physical objects do not, and so these objects are not missed.
Maggor's Webster is, for the most part, an effective and believable narrator. As a hugely successful and pioneering woman in Shakespearean theater in America, she seems an able and logical guide to the host of performances that take place during the show.
Maggor purposefully keeps the house lighting halfway on for most of the narration throughout the piece so as to better respond, as Webster, to many reactions from the audience (i.e. promising to forward applause to Elizabeth Taylor or acknowledging audience's laughter to her impression of Claire Danes).
These interactions are the weakest elements of the performance. The impromptu statements to the audience, while said seemingly in the manner of Webster, are somewhat at odds with the rest of
Webster's character. Maggor attempts to better connect Webster to the modern audience with these off-hand remarks, but instead shows a sort of disconnect between Webster and Maggor's own thoughts as presented through Webster.
Thankfully, Maggor preserves her impressions of the other fifteen actresses she portrays without modern interruption. She arranges her portrayals so as to best comment on American society at the time, and how culture has changed or interpreted Shakespeare's meaning since his plays were first performed on Broadway. She presents an audience with a history that few know and all should want to learn.
