A night of elegance and love was brought to the McCarter Theatre in Princeton as Edith Wharton’s, “The Age of Innocence,” was presented on the stage.
Set in New York in the 1870’s, the play is based off of Wharton’s 1920 American novel, “Innocence,” which was originally released in four parts. Later that year, it was released with all four parts put together and eventually won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The accolade made Wharton the first woman to win the award.
The play opened with an Old Gentleman (Boyd Gaines), walking up through the audience on to the stage. Wearing a gray suit, he informed the audience that he is going to tell us a tale from his past.
We were then taken to an opera house where three men sit on one side of the stage adjacent to four women on the other. The Old Gentleman began to explain who each of the men are when a fourth, clearly younger man, walks into their box. He tells us that it was him from ages ago.
Newland Archer (Andrew Veenstra), a lawyer among one of Manhattan’s finest families, sat down to join the other rich and established men. Taking a seat, he took a pair of opera glasses out, but rather than looking at the opera, Newland began to peer at the parallel box where the four women sat in their elegant gowns.
Looking into the other box, Newland admired one of the women in a flowing, white dress. May Wellend (Helen Cespedes), his new fiancé, sat quietly next to another woman, who looked like her exact opposite. With her hair up instead of down, a glorious shade of red, she sat in a black gown with a look of intellect on her face.
Immediately there in shock throughout the box as they realize who the one woman is. Ellen Olenska (Sierra Boggess) returned to New York from Europe where she had been residing with her husband, a Polish Count. It is rumored that she is separating from her husband after a bad marriage. Something that goes against all things proper.
The opera ends, and Newland entered the other box to greet his fiancé. He proposed the idea that the two should announce their engagement at a ball that they are on their way to following the opera. May, of course, agrees.
Countess Ellen Olenska returned, and May introduced Newland to her, she turned out to be May’s cousin. Ellen greeted Newland and fondly reminded him that the two met as children. She even pointse out the fact that Newland always tried to kiss her as a boy. Newland, felling awkward and embarrassed by this, tried to brush off the encounter.
They all arrived for the ball following the show, and Newland took the first chance he gets to announce the engagement between him and May.
Ellen approached Newland by the end of the evening and the two begin to talk. She wanted to know about his relationship with May, and he explained to her that this is the happiest he has ever been, and he could never love someone more.
The next day, Newland arrived for work and his boss handed him a file that said that this case was specifically for him. It’s Ellen’s divorce case and Newland showed immediate concern and said that he could never take the case because Ellen is his new fiancé’s cousin and it would be a conflict of interest.
Newland is told that he has been requested specifically by the family because there are issues inside the file that they would rather be seen by no one other than him. He reluctantly agrees.
From there, Newland went to seek out Ellen to discuss how she wished to proceed with the case. Ellen shared that she would like to divorce the Polish Count and be rid of him completely.
Newland is astonished by this. He told her that she should never divorce and that the scandal would not only be detrimental to her image but her entire family’s as well.
Newland is asked to persuade Ellen to not seek out a divorce and succeeds in doing so but begins to fall for her in the process. She is not like any girl he has ever met before, and she is especially different from May. Ellen has a view of the world like no other and she expresses that view to everyone she meets. She truly dazzles Newland.
While May is away with her parents in St. Augustine for the week, Newland continued to see Ellen, but it is still strictly on a professional basis. Until one evening when they are speaking, and the conversation led to an inevitable kiss.
Newland, now feeling guilty, wen to St. Augustine the very next day to try to persuade May to move the wedding closer. He claimed he loved her so much that he does not want to wait another year to marry her, but it is clear that he thought if he can marry May sooner, he can move on from his feelings for Ellen.
May accused him of seeing someone else because she can sense his guilt. But when she brought up a random girl from Newland’s past, he scoffed at her and believed his secret love for Ellen is safe. May gave Newland one more out and said that if he does love someone else, he is more than free to break off their engagement. He refused and said he still loves her.
Newland returned to New York and sought out Ellen once more. He went to tell her what has happened with May and claimed that she gave him an out of their engagement. Newland is prepared to end it with May and start a life with Ellen.
A telegram arrives at that exact moment from May. She claimed that her parents have agreed to Newland’s proposal of an earlier marriage and she is overjoyed to be able to marry him as soon as possible. Newland’s envisioned life with Ellen is halted before it even gets started…
Honorable Mentions:
Sierra Boggessas Countess Ellen Olenska was a joy to watch. Every time she entered the stage your eyes were drawn immediately to her. She captured every scene and had a beautiful singing voice in her brief moments of song.
Boyd Gainesas The Old Gentleman was very powerful on the stage as well. Acting as a narrator throughout the production, his strong and commanding voice drew in the audience and kept you wanting more.
Yan Li, who was not an actor in the production, but a pianist. Li sat in the background of every scene at the bench of a piano and provided the score throughout the entire show. In a production about elegance, his playing did not fall short.
“The Age of Innocence,” continues at McCarter Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, through October 7. For tickets and information, go to www.mccarter.org; 609-258-2787.
