Must personal growth be accompanied by sharp emotional pain?
That question arises from director Bain Boehlke's heartbreaking production of "The Heiress," which opened Friday at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.
The well-acted and beautifully designed drama holds a viewer from the moment the curtain rises on the breathtaking set, also by Boehlke, to the very end, when the title character, portrayed with sublime sympathy by Kate Guentzel, resolutely carries a light up a flight of stairs.
That light is a symbol of her development in a drama that could be subtitled "an education in cruelty."
Adapted by the wife-and-husband team of Ruth and Augustus Goetz from Henry James' short novel "Washington Square," the 1947 play orbits Catherine Sloper (Guentzel), her father, Dr. Austin Sloper (Jeffrey Hatcher) and Morris Townsend (John Catron), a charming bon vivant.
Catherine's mother died while giving birth to her, a tragedy for which her father blames her. If Dr. Sloper, who uses truth as a very sharp weapon, treats his daughter with contempt, he may not want to harm her so much as arm her for a cruel world. She, in turn, behaves like a bird with a broken wing, deferring to him at every turn.
When sweet-talking Morris comes a-courting, Dr. Sloper is highly suspicious. He wants plain-looking Catherine to see that Morris is only after the inheritance she got from her mother. But Catherine is so taken by Morris' attention she plans to elope. Things come to a head when Dr. Sloper, who has taken ill, threatens to disinherit her from the sum she's to receive from him.
In his sterling staging, Boehlke never gives away the ending, even though you sort of see it coming. Guentzel plays the title role with such understanding and compassion, you cannot help but root for her. She is masterful in the role.
