{"id":8366,"date":"2020-01-29T07:29:33","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T12:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8366"},"modified":"2020-10-13T12:58:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T16:58:17","slug":"midwives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8366","title":{"rendered":"Midwives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo: \u00a9 T Charles Erickson <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

George Street Playhouse<\/a>\u2019s world-premiere stage adaptation of Midwives<\/em>, directed by the theater\u2019s Artistic Director, David Saint, opened January 24 and runs through February 16. Chris Bohjalian\u2019s 1997 suspense novel<\/a> has sold more than two million copies, and at least two previous attempts have been made to take it from page to stage. For George Street\u2019s version, Bohjalian himself takes on the writing task. That he\u2019s more a novelist than a playwright may account for some of my difficulties with this production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sibyl Danforth (played by Ellen McLaughlin), a\nwell-respected Vermont midwife, is attending the labor of Charlotte Bedford\n(Monique Robinson). On hand are Charlotte\u2019s husband Asa (Ryan George) and Sibyl\u2019s\nnew assistant, Anne Austin (Grace Experience). It\u2019s the middle of the night and\nan ice storm rages outside and the labor is not going well. Finally, the\nsituation deteriorates to the point that she agrees Charlotte should go to the\nhospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the storm has knocked out the phone lines and\nthe roads around the Bedfords\u2019 remote farmhouse are impassable. When Charlotte falls\nunconscious, Sibyl believes she\u2019s had a stroke. She cannot detect blood\npressure or pulse. CPR proves fruitless. Faced with a dead mother, Sibyl\u2019s\nattention turns to saving the infant, using a kitchen knife to cut Charlotte\nopen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Act Two, Sibyl is on trial for manslaughter. Anne\nmaintains Charlotte was alive when Sibyl made the incision, and the state\u2019s\nattorney (Armand Schultz) argues that Sibyl\u2019s intervention killed her. Sibyl\u2019s\nlawyer (Lee Sellars) says, on the contrary, she saved a life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout, you have the perspective of Sybil\u2019s daughter, 14-year-old\nConnie (Molly Carden). The events around Charlotte\u2019s death and her mother\u2019s trial\nare vivid in Connie\u2019s mind almost a decade later, when she is a budding OB-GYN.\nWhile skipping around in time is rather easily handled in a novel, in a play it\nmakes for some awkward scenelets. Especially puzzling were interactions between\nmedical student Connie and Anne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ancient times, a sibyl was considered a witch, and,\nregrettably, the pursuit of Sibyl Danforth becomes a witch-hunt, which oversimplifies\nmany issues. The play would have had a much-needed infusion of drama had it\nretained the novel\u2019s final surprise as a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bohjalian made another important departure from the book\nwhen he made Charlotte and Asa Bedford African American. A black preacher and\nhis wife newly arrived in northern Vermont to serve a congregation of Q-tips\n(Charlotte\u2019s description) shifts the social dynamic and raises unnecessary (and\nunanswered) questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actors do a good job with the somewhat limited emotional\nrange provided by the script. McLaughlin is stoic, Experience is a master of \u201cI\ntold you so,\u201d and George is the most sympathetic when he declares he doesn\u2019t\nwant Sibyl punished. This is a story that should have been dripping with drama;\nI don\u2019t understand why it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Midwives<\/em> is on view at George Street\u2019s beautiful new\nhome at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 9 Livingston Avenue. For tickets,\ncall 732-246-7717 or contact the Box Office<\/a> online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Street Playhouse\u2019s world-premiere stage adaptation of Midwives, directed by the theater\u2019s Artistic Director, David Saint, opened January 24 and runs through February 16. Chris Bohjalian\u2019s 1997 suspense novel has sold more than two million copies, and at least two … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Midwives - this story should have been dripping with drama, and I don't understand why it wasn't. Two previous playwrights had taken this story from page to stage, but for this version the novelist did the job himself.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[366,104,147,785],"tags":[1698,1270,1697],"class_list":["post-8366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drama","category-the-morgue","category-theater","category-tragedy","tag-chris-bohjalian","tag-george-street-playhouse","tag-midwives"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2NkiT-midwives","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8368,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8366\/revisions\/8368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}