‘Heiress’ more curiosity than entertainment

Every now and then a production comes along that makes you feel ambivalent. You don't hate it, you don't love it. It's just sort of there.

Which brings us to Nevada Conservatory Theatre's "The Heiress." It's a respectable mounting of Ruth and Augustus Goetz's skillful adaptation of Henry James' 1881 novella, "Washington Square." The script stays remarkably faithful to its source material.

We're in the front parlor of the comfortable 1850s New York City home of Dr. Austin Sloper (Joe Hammond). The domineering but basically loving widower is overprotective of his daughter Catherine (Chelsea Cyan Brim). And with good reason. The girl is plain and painfully shy. She easily falls in love with the manipulative Morris Townsend (Ryan Fonville), who is obviously courting her for her money. Daddy threatens to cut off funds. But by the end of the play, the blindly subservient Catherine turns the tables on both father and disingenuous lover.

Brim is an attractive actress, and it's fun in the first act to see how she manages to have her character's self-loathing upstage her physical beauty. We come to believe Catherine is plain, because Brim wills it so. She demonstrates how we can become who we think we are.

But too often the acting is one-note. Director Sarah Norris' inability to avoid stereotypes and monotonous pacing diffuses the script's power. This story isn't plot-driven. We know early how things are likely to end. What distinguishes it is its moment-to-moment character details, and with a few exceptions, the details are wanting.

Hammond, for example, is a giant stage presence. His brawniness and deep, booming voice make him a natural for the Shavian role of the doctor. But he plays the man as a simple fool. As a result, the complexity in the father-daughter conflict is minimized, and the play loses its punch.

When Brim undergoes a major attitude change, the nuances of her performance evaporate. She projects a generic attitude, and we lose interest in her.

Susan Lowe, though, is charming, ditzy and warm as the doctor's sister. Her role could easily be played as a type, but Lowe particularizes her character. And Norris has mounted a handsome production. Ashleigh Poteat's elegant set, Zhenni Li's attractive costumes and Lee Terry's picturesque lighting allow us to be easily transported into the story.

James' fans may be intrigued. But the show is more of a curiosity than an entertainment.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.