Word: welled
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Thoreau is, of course, the play's focus, and all the other characters seem to exist merely as his foils. Emerson (Elijah Siegler) is portrayed as a well-meaning, pontificating old man who is, at the end, rather pathetic because he does nothing to act on the ideals that he inspires in Thoreau. Other characters such as Thoreau's brother (David Javerbaum) who shares and makes corporeal Thoreau's ideals, and the man from the school committee (Ted Caplow) who attacks Thoreau for not sticking to the established texts, are also well portrayed...
THOREAU is quite funny in parts and is very well acted, especially by Frost, who dominates stage time and dialogue. Especially well done are the scenes of Thoreau as a teacher, getting his students to learn and teaching Bailey (Jason Solomon) how to write his name...
...play is slickly produced, with the music--a flute and a drum--well integrated into the performance. The production does a good job of evoking an aura of the surreal, except when it tries too hard and overdoes it during the dream sequence, making the scene seem cliched...
...idealism is old and worn out, it does not affect one as it might have. Thoreau's story--except the sequence about the death of his brother, which is affecting--is not emotionally powerful. The play lacks the emotional or intellectual weight to make it anything more than well done and funny...
Still, The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail is enjoyable and effective. Many of the problems stem from the script, and the actors and director Carl B.J. Fox do very well with what they are given. On the basis of the production and the humor, it makes the Leverett Old Library worth spending your night...