By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — Western women who were born to Gen X or after may not remember how hard our female ancestors had to fight for equality or even the right to their own self-determination. It wasn’t that long ago that a woman’s worth was literally determined by the men around her. This is one of the big themes of Vanity Fair, currently playing at Scripps Ranch Theater.
Set in 1820s England and written by Kate Hamill, the story follows the lives of two friends from school, the rich Amelia Sedley (Mikaela Rae Macias) and the poor Becky Sharp (Alyssa Anne Austin). Both of these women, upon graduating from finishing school, must find a good match in order to have any sort of security in life. Amelia comes from a good family, and is more or less betrothed to fickle George Osborne (Mashun Tucker), but his father opposes the match when he learns that Amelia’s father may be going bankrupt. In the meantime, good and kind Captain William Dobbin (Justin Lang) loves her from afar.
Becky on the other hand, who is far smarter than Amelia, yet born to a lower station, feels pressure to find a man to marry so that she won’t end up spending her life as a governess. By the end of a somewhat confusing act one, both women have found matches, but their grooms were cut off from their fortunes for running off with them.
Act two sees the women doing what they can to survive and take care of their families, while being largely condemned for every move they make. I’ll stop here so as not to give away too much.
The play is cute once you figure out the various players. The only actors that don’t play multiple parts are Macias and Austin, so it does take a bit in the beginning to follow the fast character changes (illustrated by costume changes or putting on a smock or shawl). Dagmar Krause Fields for example, is the narrator, Miss Matilda Crawley, and Lord Steyne. I particularly liked her in the role of Miss Matilda Crawley. At times there were some minor issues hearing her in the role of narrator- perhaps when she moved past the “mic line” and was coming more downstage into the audience.
Stand out actors are Austin, Macias, and Lang. Lang is one of the stagehands at the JCC and I have had the pleasure of working with him in my role as stage manager for TEDxSanDiego. While I was definitely rooting for him, I’m also happy to say that he deserves the recognition.
In general I think that the pacing of the production was a little slow and could have been picked up a bit. The second half was more interesting and easier to follow than the first, a sentiment I heard echoed from other audience members as we were filing out.
Vanity Fair plays through June 16.
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Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.