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The Belle of Amherst
By Terry Westhoff
Take a moment to step inside a private world of one of the most intriguing and eccentric poets in American history. What can be found is the fascinating and secluded life of Emily Dickinson, The Belle of Amherst. Based on an original play written by William Luce, The Belle of Amherst focuses on the poet's personal struggles with religion, her family, and most of all, her writing.
The entire story is an intimate event as Dickinson, played by Kate Randolph Burns, directly addresses the audience through most of the play, making as if they are the privileged ones gaining a glimpse into a life few knew. The play opens days before Dickinson's death where she is a recluse living in her father's home in Amherst she calls The Homestead. From the immediate opening, Burns invites the audience into her life by telling them her recipe for black cake. From that point, she explains why she never leaves her house; for fear of running into the local gossipmongers, even though she reveals humorous gossip antidotes about the townspeople.
Burns smoothly guides the audience through the first act as she tells about Dickinson's teenage years growing up in Amherst. She believes she is going to become the Belle of Amherst, but is sadly left out of the town's social scene as gentlemen prefer the company of other girls in the town. Burns brings the audience back into the present to distill more witty antidotes about her family, friends, and even her affinity for words. The interweaving of past and present brings the audience to a critical moment in Dickinson's life as she discovers her true purpose in life: writing. Burns brings out the most in Dickinson's true passion as she brazenly describes what writing means to her and how she uses it to reveal her innermost self.
After a brief stint in a religious girls school, for which Dickinson describes as being out of place and criticized by the head mistress for not being active in religion, she turns to her poetry with hopes of publication and fame. But, just as quickly as Dickinson wants her poetry published, she soon discovers that her dream is more difficult to achieve than she thinks. Dickinson ongoing struggles for publication and her fleeting affairs with older gentlemen highlight the more dramatic parts of the play as she lives out her life on The Homestead.
Kate Randolph Burns deserves the most credit for bringing Dickinson to life in a brilliant performance that makes The Belle of Amherst a play well worth viewing. The moment she steps on stage, Burns brings an air of preciseness that draws the audience in and seems as if Dickinson herself is recounting her life in front of their eyes. Burns brings her experience to the role like a veteran baseball pitcher stepping on the mount for the big game. Everything is seamless and fluid. Every movement, gesture, expression, and emotion is convincing. As Burns steps on stage for the first time, she wears a wide smile beaming with poise as she describes the recipe for her black cake. Her performance reaches its peak as she receives the terrible rejection from the editor of a newspaper that her poems are not good enough for publication. Her facial expression from momentary joy to painful denial is quick and faultless to the point where the audience can truly empathize with her and her feeling. Burns gives a stand-out performance in a complex role that is even amplified in difficulty since she is the only one on stage for the entire play.
Of course, Burns doesn't deserve all of the credit for her performance. Tony Sears, the director, is also worth noting. Sears, a veteran director of one-woman plays, also brings his experience to The Belle of Amherst. Sears displays his crisp direction through Burns as she fluidly moves around the simple set as if she has been living there for as long as the real Dickinson stayed in Homestead. The set, constructed by James Coccoluto and Teresa Grow, exemplifies Dickinson's simplistic lifestyle, free from clutter with small snippets of her life, such as her only photograph, and pages and pages of poems.
The quaint Actors Forum Theatre provides the perfect location for the personalized story of Dickinson. The small structure puts the audience nearly on top of the stage and involved in Dickinson's life. Mixed with Burns' performance, THE BELLE OF AMHERST is an experience not to be missed.