The Good Book of Pedantry and Wonder
Theatre comes, as we all know, in a widely-varying collection of shapes, sizes, colors and sounds. It can be about anything, including love, death, hope, despair and the compilation of the Oxford Dictionary.
Oh, yes, “The Good Book of Pedantry and Wonder,” by British playwright Moby Pomerance, in its world premiere at the exciting Theatre @ Boston Court, in Pasadena, deals with the consuming energy needed to produce a major research tome. I suspect we all take our dictionaries (in book-form or on-line) for granted. They give us the word we wanted, with, perhaps, some historical or grammatical background on it; we use it and we goes on our way.
But just what is this process by which dictionaries get started – and finished? Who pays for it? Who envisions it? See Mr. Pomerance’s extraordinary play and you’ll have an inkling. Set in the mid-1880s in Victorian England, we are introduced to the driving-force behind the project, young Miss Jane Murray (Melanie Lora), her cantankerous, slightly-deranged father, James (John Getz) and her shy brother, Paul (Ryan Welsh), who has secrets to be kept secret. In addition, we meet the staff-of-one, Mr. Smythic (Time Winters) and an abused volunteer, Mr. Wynchell (Travis Michael Holder), plus a mysterious friend of her long-absent brother, Mr. Owen (Henry Todd Ostendorf). A marvelous clan who are doing Literary God’s Work in assembling this English-language dictionary.
What Mr. Pomerance and director John Lang have assembled is a masterpiece of wit, information, period behavior and “words, Polonius, words.” Funny, suspenseful, clever and educational, it’s a wise play, as well as an informative one. Long at 2.5 hours, it’s also great fun, worth the extra time spent in its company.
A co-production between Theatre @ Boston Court (Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti, co-Artistic directors) and Circle X (Tim Wright, Artistic Director), the production glows with intelligence, ideas, and talent. Mr. Lang has encouraged a sort of non-realistic acting style that fits with the idea of words as divine creations, coupling it with a realistic set – cubbyholes by the hundreds for storing the words and their meanings, one that flies apart when needs-be – caressed with expert lighting (sets and lighting by Brian Sidney Bembridge), period costumes (Dianne K. Graebner) and Chuck Olsen’s sensational properties design. Credit veteran casting director Michael Donovan, CSA, for the excellent actors. And so on. Where does one stop in praising genius? Can’t stop. Go see. Enjoy provocative theatre!
THE GOOD BOOK OF PEDANTRY AND WONDER plays through August 29th, 2010. Call 626.683.6883 for tickets. Boston Court Performing Arts Center is at 70 N. Mentor Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106.