'The Belle of Amherst" an intimate play in NoHo
Jackie Houchin
September 14, 2008
Multi-talented actress Kate Randolph Burns plays the diminutive but strong-willed, poetess, with dedication and skill through an amazing palette of emotions and experiences.
Joy beams from her face as Emily confesses, "Words are my life," and then lets a few delicious ones roll off her tongue, like phosphorescence and Massachusetts. Her eyes sparkle with mischief and glitter with tears as Emily describes her full but reclusive life.
Unlike in most live theatre, Burns willingly breaks that "fourth wall" in order to interact with the audience. As Emily, she looks each person in the eye and speaks to them as if they were welcome visitors in her home. Indeed, she offers on a crystal plate samples of her famous "Black Cake" to those in the first row, and then accommodates them by reciting the recipe.
Dressed in "bridal white" every day for most of her life, Emily Dickinson´s existence was anything by blissful. But she turned her disappointments, as well as the delights she found in nature, into perceptive poetry.
She corresponded with the editor of the Atlantic Monthly for eight years, submitting numerous poems, which he summarily rejected (she called it "surgery"), until one day he arrived at her house to discuss them. Nervous and excited, she wondered which he would choose to publish.
She was unprepared for his dagger-like words and "a great hope fell." Her poems were "un-metered, spasmodic, uncontrolled…and un-publishable."
Emily continued to write, but not as feverishly, claiming that she was now "past her meridian" and not so interested in publishing.
She received no Valentines (though she sent many) and was passed over at dances for the prettier girls. "But I had more than one suitor," she assured the audience saucily before admitting, "Unfortunately they were all married."
After narrating the details of her father´s sudden death, the poetess leaned toward the audience. "Hold your parents tenderly," she admonished. "You are so alone when they are gone."
Her final words to the audience as she held out a small chest containing her entire collection of poems, were, "This is my letter to the World that never wrote to Me…"
History records that Emily´s sister, Lavina published three volumes of her poems after her death. Nearly fifty years later a niece transcribed and published many more.
"The Belle of Amherst" plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm, now through October 5. Admission is $25.00. For reservations, call (866) 811-4111 or visit www.theatermania.com
The Actors Forum Theatre is located at 10655 Magnolia Blvd, in the NoHo Arts District (two blocks west of Cahuenga)
For more information about the play or Kate Randolph Burns, visit www.belletheplay.com
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