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Regional Reviews: New Jersey The Beatification of Mrs. Packard : Emily Mann Pens a Stirring Old Fashioned Social Melodrama Also see Bob's review of Henry V
It is this law which led to the true story on which author-director Emily Mann has based her new play Mrs. Packard. With its invented scenes and dialogue, streamlining and juxtaposition of events, and composite characters, this play is no way a documentary, unlike some of Mann's other work. However, it does hew closely to the historical record. Mann's script has neither the depth, complexity of character, sufficient theatrical invention, nor brilliance of language to transcend her standard issue melodramatic story. However, both as a socially conscious melodrama which arouses strong outrage in the viewer and as a valuable history lesson with contemporary relevance, Mrs. Packard is informative, lively and engrossing. In 1861, the Reverend Theophilus Packard had Elizabeth, his perfectly rational wife of 22 years and the mother of his six children, taken by force from their home and committed to the Illinois State Hospital (insane asylum). The well-educated Elizabeth had come to openly question the strict Calvinist beliefs of her husband, especially his belief in the inherently evil nature of man. The final straw in convincing the rigid, self-righteous Theo of Elizabeth's insanity was her having stood up during his Church service and requested permission from her fellow congregants to worship with the nearby Methodist congregation. When they met her request with silence, Elizabeth walked out of her husband's church and went across the street to the Methodist church where she continued to worship until her forcible commitment. The bulk of Mrs. Packard transpires in the asylum where, in true melodramatic fashion, Elizabeth and the other patients are subjected to increasingly abusive treatment. At first, Elizabeth is placed in a ward with other rational, wrongly committed women. She is essentially well treated by the asylum superintendent, Dr. Andrew McFarland, who is taken with her looks and intelligence (McFarland does abuse his position by adding inappropriate caresses to his healing massages). McFarland urges Elizabeth to admit that she has been acting irrationally, and to accept the authority of her husband. He then would release her to return home to parent her children. Elizabeth refuses to barter her values and integrity for her freedom. When she begins recording the abusive treatment and conditions which she observes in the asylum, McFarland confiscates her notes and personal possessions and instructs the sadistic asylum attendant, " Mrs. Bonner, take Mrs. Packard upstairs to the 8th Ward. Treat her as you do the maniacs." Later, after McFarland discovers that Elizabeth has again obtained paper and is keeping a record of her experiences, a straight-jacket, some water torture and solitary confinement will be added to her woes. Elizabeth's confinement lasts for three years, ending only after she is able to obtain the attention of visiting asylum overseers and convince them of her super sanity. However, even then, Elizabeth's persecution continues. When she returns home, Theo locks her in an upstairs room and nails shut her windows. Fortunately, she is able to get a note describing her plight to a neighbor, and the 1864 trial to determine her sanity which frames and runs through Mrs. Packard ensues. Finally and effectively, American Graffiti-style, the characters inform us of the course of their post-trial lives. Unfortunately, throughout the asylum sequences which comprise the bulk of Mrs. Packard, I kept thinking of a similarly plotted movie which made a strong impression on me when I saw it close to sixty years ago (it may have not been a very appropriate movie for a precocious nine year old). The thought was so pervasive that I searched for the 1948 New York Times review of The Snake Pit. The review contained the following description of that film:
There are ways to dramatize events which made for a highly praised "breakthrough" film in 1948, so that they do not make a 2007 play feel old fashioned, but Emily Mann has not yet found any here. At one point, Mann shoehorns in a line that variations of which have always drawn hosannas at feminist gatherings, but it is so out of character that it draws inappropriate, mood-shattering laughter. It is spoken by Mrs. Tenney, the meek and decent attendant, after Elizabeth responds to her urging to submit to her husband in order to be able to be freed and returned to her children by asking, "You would have me lie?". Mrs. Tenney responds, "Yes, I suppose I would. Women have been doing it since the beginning of time". One problem may be that Emily Mann is so smitten with the historical Elizabeth Packard that she has painted her as a saint and not a believable, three-dimensional human being. Surely, Packard must have been an at least a somewhat strident and stubborn woman with a fine touch of madness and fire. How else to account for her insistence on enduring the hellfire of being imprisoned in a squalid asylum, and being apart from her eighteen-month-old baby and four other children still living at home. Surely, fear, outrage and mental upset would accompany anyone being thrown into the 8th Ward and beyond. But not Mrs. Packard's Elizabeth. Except for when she is first placed into a straight-jacket and one tiny moment when she verbally expresses doubt as to her sanity, Elizabeth is always upbeat, calm, perfectly in control and prepared to make the best of her situation. Kathryn Meisle is always likeable in portraying the almost always firmly in control Elizabeth, but neither she nor her director seem to have considered portraying the pain and despair which Elizabeth Packard most assuredly faced. Dennis Parlato is excellent as Dr. McFarland, the most three-dimensional character in view. Parlato embraces McFarland's moments of grace and doubt, but never fudges the steely evil which always will lead McFarland to place his perceived self-interest above honest decency. John C. Vennema hits all the right notes as Theophilus. Beneath a surface of pompous, bigoted stupidity, Vennema conveys the sense that Theo's despicable treatment of Elizabeth arises from a complex combination of true religious belief, fear, and resentment. The large and fine ensemble is most ably led by Fiana Toibin as the sadistic attendant Mrs. Bonner and Julie Boyd as the meek one, Mrs. Tenney; and Molly Regan and Georgine Hall as sane victims of an unjust law. Emily Mann has directed with clarity, power and pace. Her direction is abetted by the large, realistic and flexible set by Eugene Lee. Lee's unit set is so richly detailed and full of surprises that it never has the make-do feel of many such sets. Lee, a master of stagecraft, is at the top of his form here. Jennifer von Mayrhauser has provided the evocative period costumes. Mrs. Packard continues performances (Eves.: Wed,/Thurs./Sun. 7:30 p.m.; Fri./Sat. 8 p.m.; Mats.: Sat. 3 p.m./ Sun. 2 p.m. —No Eve. Perf. 6/10) through June 10, 2007 at the McCarter Theatre Center (Berlind Theatre), 91 University Place, Princeton, NJ 08540. Box Office: 609-258-5050; online: www.mccarter.org. Mrs. Packard (world premiere) written and directed by Emily Mann Cast
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