Emma @ Cleveland Playhouse, 3/3/10

The task of boiling a novel down to a two-act play is not for the faint of heart. Michael Bloom's adaptation of Jane Austen's novel about Emma Woodhouse, a spoiled rich girl who meddles in everyone else's business while paying no attention to her own lamentable shortcomings provided for a full evening of theatre and a bit of fresh perspective.

Bloom and director Peter Amster make Emma's father a central figure, both physically (he's often onstage, sitting in a chair and reacting to events which swirl around him) and psychologically, as fathers so often are in Austen's work. In this case, Emma's good heart is revealed indirectly by her concern for her father's welfare (that's her excuse for not marrying).

This concern makes her knight, Mr. Knightley, know that she's worth waiting for--such a woman can be trusted to have equal concern for an old husband. The stage settings transported us (from the balcony it looked as if the characters moved around in exquisite doll houses) from one convincing setting to another. The outstanding cast lived in their characters and made us care--and that's universally acknowledged to be a good thing.

Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.

Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.