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The eccentric Pear is back to its entertaining tricks, thanks to Sarah Gordon’s 2024 play, “Underdog: The Other Other Brontë,” which takes a highly irreverent look at the three Brontë sisters. The outcome is a fun and spellbinding evening, laced with metaphysical side trips that will leave your brain buzzing.
Lord knows, Gordon has picked a fertile situation. In 1847, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë published a book apiece – “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights” and “Agnes Grey” – that merely changed the course of English literature, at a time when women novelists were not especially welcome.
How they achieved this is more than enough to fill a standard bio-play. Faced with bickering parents, a mentally ill, alcoholic brother and an extreme shortage of funds, the sisters decided to each write a novel and submit them to publishers under the names of three imaginary brothers, the Bells.
Add to this the sweet, venomous brew that is sisterly love, and you’ve got conflict aplenty. Oldest sister Charlotte (Raven Douglas) is fully supportive of the plan, which includes no-holds-barred critiquing sessions, but then her little sisters commit the sin of finding publishers before she does. She immediately flees to a far-off caretaking job and spends her nights composing a new novel. Problem being, the book bears suspicious similarities to sister Anne’s yet-to-be-published “Agnes Grey,” and is slated to be published first. That book was “Jane Eyre.”
The most delicious thing about the play is that Gordon doesn’t stop there. She takes great, occasionally absurd liberties, primarily that of having the sisters converse in modern English, complete with jarring, casual obscenities. She also throws in the occasional anachronism, such as the interview that Charlotte conducts with the BBC.
This sense of freefall allows the story to focus on the many power geometries, the ones between the authors and the hostile male world, the authors and their troublesome family, and the growing troubles between the sisters.
Douglas has the perfect attitudinal range for Charlotte, who even in her more festive moments radiates ambitious intensity. Charlotte seems to be the most successful of the three, but she constantly spoils it by wanting more, and more, and more. It’s not enough to be an admired writer; she wants to be the toast of London, and then to be loved for her true self.
Naomi Murray plays middle sister Emily with a great and free energy, more than willing to call out big sister on her faults. She’s also just hilarious, and perhaps the only sister who’s actually happy with herself.
The heart of the play goes through Anne, and Aleisha Lew’s performance reveals a baby sister with a slippery identity. Constantly called “the mouse,” she may actually be the most courageous of the three. Her sisters scold her for basing her book “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” on their own embarrassing household, but really she’s using it to address the oppression of women that permeates British society. The criticism that comes after the publication of her “scandalous” book hits her empathic heart with great force. But this kind of criticism is the surest sign that she’s ahead of her times and, also, doing the exact right thing.
If the Brontë sisters were Muses, perhaps they would be Ambition, Passion and Sincerity, all crammed into one small household. The second act uses these qualities, and the magnifying element of success, to offer one sticky confrontation after another. Thanks to playwright Gordon and the work of director Wynne Chan, these scenes are sanctified by awkward silence, and operate within metaphysical stage zones. These powerful moments are the ones that will remain with you after the applause.
The rest of England is portrayed by a six-pack of supporting players who display great versatility. Keith Larson provides an important symbol of the Outside World in the person of Charlotte’s publisher, Smith. Dan C. creates a few reckless moments as the unstable brother Branwell and a memorable cameo as Charles Dickens hiding behind a potted plant. Bibliophiles in the audience will love the elaborate writing books and quills, and the books hanging from the rafters. I also enjoyed production designer Qian Zhang’s floor projections of the authors’ words as they wrote significant passages
“Underdog: The Other Other Brontë” runs through Nov. 22 at The Pear Theatre, 1110 La Avenida, Suite A, Mountain View. Tickets are $48. thepear.org.
