By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 15, 2014
The Victorian era was a complicated time of European history, a period of social change, and an age of both sexual discovery and repression. Early feminists began to make waves. The very fact that there were 500,000 more women in late Victorian England gave opportunities to young women to join the workforce. For women who were told that they only existed to be mothers and wives, how did a woman cope, should they have no opportunity to marry? How did she deal with her sexual urges in a time where pre-marital sex was unacceptable?
Canadian playwright Linda Griffith’s Age of Arousal addresses these questions with a sensual and clever script. UFV director Ian Fenwick brings it all to life with a cast of half a dozen women and (appropriately) just one man.
I honestly can’t say whether Age of Arousal is sexier than it is smart, or smarter than it is sexy. Three sisters — Alice Madden (Melissa Regamble), Virginia (Geneva Perkins), and the young and pretty Monica (Rae MacEachern-Eastwood) — struggle with identity and for survival without a male figure guiding them. A suffragette veteran, Mary, (Cait Archer) runs a typing school with her young lover and protégé, Rhoda (Danielle Warmenhoven). Mary’s cousin, a lecherous fellow, is thrown into the mix.
Having seen numerous prodcutions, I didn’t realize UFV theatre could be so risqué. Immediately in the opening scene, Warmenhoven and Archer’s characters — the mistress and protégé — share a passionate kiss. It set the tone for me, and got me excited – at that point, I was thinking, “now anything can happen!” And I wasn’t let down, that’s for sure.
It was a pleasure to see Danielle Warmenhoven and Eli Funk back in action after their work in Once in a Lifetime; the pair has great on-stage chemistry. The acting all around was strong and consistent. I was especially impressed with Cait Archer, who probably made me laugh the loudest with her perfectly delivered sardonic lines.
One concern of mine came from moments when characters were talking over each other. While it added to the frantic and hysterical characters of the two elder Madden sisters, I found it distracting and difficult to understand.
My biggest disappointment was the death of the “fallen woman.” Considering this is a play greatly influenced by a work written in the Victorian era, this was bound to happen — but this theme seems to continue on today. The woman loses her oh-so-precious virtue, gets pregnant or sick, then dies so that everyone learns the lesson: sluts aren’t acceptable.
The production design was flawless. There were a couple of really cleverly done scenes working with shadows, and the set’s design was pretty cool. I wondered how the costumes would go, considering the many-layered and complicated get-ups women in the Victorian age got into, but the costume designer, Aaron Froc, did the era justice.
Age of Arousal has been my favourite play put on by UFV theatre. I’d highly recommend it to anyone interested in sexuality, feminism, history and, well, acting! Performances continues on January 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. There are also two matinees at 2 p.m. on Jan. 19 and 26. Students can get tickets at the door for $10 with valid ID with the new rush ticket system; otherwise through the UFV Theatre box office at 604-795-2814 and theatre@ufv.ca.
