Renaissance’s ‘The Moors’ Is a ‘Excellent Menagerie’

Sarah Sokolovic and Allie Babich in Renaissance Theaterworks’ production of The Moors by Jen Silverman. Photo by Ross Zentner.

Explorative playwright Jen Silverman romps through all sorts of theater styles, literary tastes and feminist attitudes. She casually drops meaningful epigrams into her spinning web of language, but it is the pauses between the snarling tones and the sudden hysterics that carry much of the meaning.

The Moors at the Next Act performance space immediately takes hold of our imaginations about the 1840s era of the Bronte Sisters while crisscrossing the supposed lines between realism and expressionism, the supposed lines between England then and society now, the supposed lines between the acting styles of Bette Davis and the crisp nastiness of Maggie Smith. The dialog has a contemporary flair.

This is not theater for everyone, since it not only upends expectations about standard play formats but also requires some knowledge of the various genres being stretched, from Restoration Comedy to power ballad presentation. Only with superb players who can dance among the methods and shifting power games can such an intriguing 100-minute piece (without intermission) be brought off.

Director Suzan Fete, guiding light of the Renaissance Theaterworks, and swing director Mallory Metoxen have concocted a world class vision of the play, stylistically free, tongue in cheek where needed. The actors bounce from broad high comedy to quietly moving song, here helped by a noted Milwaukee name, music director Jill Anna Ponasik.

Silverman’s dialog even impishly helps the scene setting – she jokes how every private room in the moors Gothic mansion looks like the main parlor. Set designer Jeffrey D. Kmiec carpets the main space with the oriental rugs of the period while the weedy brush and fog of the moors creep in from the background. Jason Orlenko’s costumes combine gowns in the traditional Bronte period and anamorphic exaggeration as the animals come to life (A purist might argue that the height of some period furniture obstructs the view of some patrons).

You’ll get some idea of the fantastical nature of the play when it is the romance between an enormous dog and a tiny moorhen that tells the most truths about male-female relations. The Mastiff is expertly haunched and moodily poetic in the sturdy hands (paws?) of Reese Madigan. The Moor-Hen requires dynamic arm contortions and some startling depth of observations from Marti Gobel (even as this love affair fills the audience with dread as well as insights).

Central to the story is a version of the Bronte sisters, where Agatha is the snippy boss and Huldey is the frizzy-haired chatterbox, both married to their letters and diaries. Agatha is dismissive and calculating in the talented coldness of Sarah Sokolovic, a noted TV name who has returned to her hometown of Milwaukee for this show. Equally delightful as the gushy Huldey is Allie Babich, who plays a virtuoso of frenetic energy, smeared lips, growing hate and some mordant schemes to get attention.

There is more in this excellent menagerie. Sober stranger at first then adventurous in demands is Kaylene Howard as Emilie — a governess who thinks she was summoned by the man of the house, but soon learns that it is Agatha who has designs on her body. In the frenzy of the behavior in this weird house on the moors, there is a quiet assurance in Howard’s performance that fits the story.

Then there is the scullery maid or kitchen cook – Marjory or Mallory, depending on her role, her cough, her pregnancy and her multiple maid caps. With a mischievous glint, Emily Vitrano neatly handles her journey from churlish servant to murderous conniver with her mistresses of the manor.

There are laughs within The Moors, but there is also a strange horror. This is theater that requires audiences to suspend expectations and journey where the playwright wants us to look. To heck with what books about the well-made play tell students.

Renaissance Theaterworks, now at home in the Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St., presents The Moors though Nov. 10. https://rtwmke.org/shows/the-moors/

The Moors Gallery

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Dominique Paul Noth served for decades as film and drama critic, later senior editor for features at the Milwaukee Journal. You’ll find his blog here and here.