Jen Silverman Creates a Dark & Thrilling Brontë Mashup

by Lynne Stevens

Tell your friends about this standout twisted tale “from Behind the Basement Door.” I am always blown away by Theatre Lunatico’s high quality of performances in their tiny, postage stamp-sized theater. Be one of the lucky ones to get one of its 60 seats.

A talking dog in a tweed suit? James Perry of the forlorn looks captures the emotions of the restrained dog. The Mastiff longs for love and to break free from the confines of the house. Each character expresses a deep desire or sad loneliness.

Eldest sister Agatha (excellent Lauri Smith) rules the roost in this mixed salad of Brontë names, themes, and characters. She presides over a dark Victorian house in the mysterious English moors.

Emilie, the new governess (eager Devon deGroot), with a beautiful singing voice, arrives, longing for the love in Master Branwell’s letters. Emilie has been hired to look after a child. Where is the child?

The arrival of the governess has excited the younger sister, Huldey (expressive Rachel Brown). She wants to hear about London and other kinds of families. Perhaps they’re happier than hers. She longs to escape her sister’s grip.

Huldey, with fly away hair and raucous red dress, manically describes the moors to Emilie:

I just know you’ll love it here! The bracing air, and the strange, thorny flowers, and the gorse . . . and there are lots of long walks you might take. Although there’s quicksand of course … But in general, the moors are very pretty.

Huldey wants to help Emilie, giving her clues, but she can’t help herself.

God, happiness, love, and virtue are on the powerful Mastiff’s mind. The delicate Moor-Hen (light hearted Sophie Ruf), in orange ruffles, expresses her animal nature. Dog and bird are bound by their natures—as we see in the Aesop-like conclusion.

Like the characters in the Brontë house, the Mastiff is compelled to control the Moor-Hen. Like a bad boyfriend who wants to protect her . . . too much!

Sometimes what is difficult to speak is so much better when sung and Emilie sings beautifully, trying to win over Agatha. In the second act, a softer Agatha improvises a lullaby for Emilie. Later, even Huldey rocks out, declaring her independence.

The parlor is the bedroom and the bedroom is the parlor. And the maid is named Mallory or Marjory depending on the room. Oh, and later, if she is a writer, she is Margaret! We can’t trust her, she plants an idea in Huldey’s ambitious head.

A walk on the savage landscape of the moors with Agatha and Emilie reveals that Agatha has talents too. Emilie is seduced by skillful kisses as the mists roll over the moors.

As sexually repressed spinsters, Smith and Brown reveal their secret intentions and feelings. Agatha wants complete power and poor Huldey yearns to be recognized.

As in Jane Eyre, it’s not a “madwoman” like Rochester’s wife locked up in the attic. No, it is drunken, addicted, brother Branwell, who gets the “hide the embarrassment” treatment.

These feminists have plans for him. They flip the script and treat him the way women were treated. These childless Brontës have a scheme in mind. It’s a mystery, a ghost story turned comedy thriller—the perfect play for Halloween.

“The Moors” by Jen Silverman, music by Daniel Kruger, directed by Tara Blau Smollen, music director Verena Lee, sound by Michael Barr, lighting by Francesca Berlow, costumes by Loran Watkins, set construction by Umut Yalcinkaya & Christian Cendejas, music production by Steve Egelman.

—at Theatre Lunatico, Berkeley. Info: theatrelunatico – to November 3, 2024.

Cast: Rachel Brown, Devon DeGroot, Shawn Oda, James Perry, Sophie Ruf, and Lauri Smith.

Banner photo: Lauri Smith (Agatha) & Rachel Brown (Huldey). Photos by Robin Jackson