Anne of Avonlea lacks spark of its prequel
When something works well one year, it’s tempting to go back to the well for a second year, either with the same play or something very similar.
It’s what What a Do is doing this holiday season. Last year, they produced Anne of Green Gables, and received a warm response from audiences and critics alike. It was a lovely production with a fine actress playing the title role. So this year, they brought in the second in the series, Anne of Avonlea, a play dramatized from L.M. Montgomery’s classic novel by Jeanette Carlisle. They even brought back the same actresses to play the lead roles of Anne Shirley (Averi Beck) and Marilla Cuthbert (Stacy Little).
Unfortunately, while the actors still put in a fine performance, the script simply isn’t as strong as the first one is. The first one has a strong story with the suspense of whether the Cuthberts will keep Anne and what will become of her as an orphan with an overwhelming personality and a heated temper. She gets herself into fixes even while endearing herself to those around her.
The second one has no through-line that holds the whole play together. Rather it is a series of vignettes in the life of the now adult Anne. She’s much more in control, and while she gets into fixes, they’re no longer ones that are bound up with personality. Even when there are problems she gets herself into, this script has a tendency to reveal them as a surprise and then end the scene, never going back to it, nor and showing how the situations resolve themselves–if indeed they do.
The script also adds people that have no opportunity for character development. They show up as members of Anne’s Avonlea Village Improvement Society, but they have no other purpose other than to show that there are lots of people involved.
Despite the weakness of the script, What a Do actors and crew do their best to present a polished show. Beck reprises the title role and she shows development for this character. Anne is no longer a child, but she still has much of the idealism and energy that marked her character. Beck brings a control and a lady-like air to Anne. She shows a girl who has grown up and is comfortable with the role she’s achieved in society. She balances the bubbling energy of Anne’s youth with a wisdom gained from growing up.
Little returns as Marilla and she too has aged the character, making her somewhat more frail, but still with all the strength of character that Marilla possesses. She is much more lovable in this play, in part because she has surrendered to Anne and is no longer in an antagonistic position. Little’s challenge in this play is to show Marilla struggling with age and the physical weakness that comes with it.
Michael Andres plays the new neighbor, Mr. J.A. Harrison, and he plays the role robustly, a character who gives Lynda Wolfersberger Hensel’s Mrs. Rachel Lynde something to gossip about. Both of these adults in a cast full of teenagers put in amusing performances. They are the characters that inhabit the village and make it unique and different. Both Andres and Hensel fully commit to their characters’ eccentricities.
Anne’s two best friends, Diana Barry (Maddy Haywood) and Gilbert Blythe (Christian Perez) join Anne as school teachers. Haywood is an ideal balance to Beck. They show opposite sides of the same coin. Haywood captures Diana’s practicality and is well-grounded in the role. Perez is somewhat flat in his performance, making it difficult to believe in him as a romantic interest for the fiery Anne.
Rachel Markillie makes a surprise appearance toward the end as Emily Harrison. She infuses a delightful comedic energy to the latter part of the play. She’s perfectly pushy and supports her lines with actions that underline her character. She’s fully committed the entire time she’s on stage and brings Emily to life fully formed in the brief period she has.
Director Randy Wolfe spreads people out on the stage without ever making it look overcrowded. The pacing of this play is quick, much faster than the first play and it seems to fly by much faster than the two hours that the clock says. He cast the show well, finding teenagers from their summer program to populate the many friends of Anne. He directs them well, and they give as much as the script allows them to.
Anne of Avonlea is well-performed, it simply lacks the story and character development of the original story. It is a sequel that doesn’t stand on its own and simply gives additional glimpses into the lives of the people met in the first story.