December 11, 2019
Page 5
Good Cheer for Miss Bennet’s Christmas
o PinionAted
J udge
by
d arleen
o rtega
Holiday entertainment isn’t
known for up-ending expecta-
tions. Just about any Christmas
film, play or song is meant to feel
familiar and to reinforce what you
already believe, leaving you feel-
ing good.
In most respects, Portland Cen-
ter Stage’s production of “Miss
Bennet: Christmas at Pember-
ley,” now playing at the Armory
through Dec. 29, meets all those
requirements. Though it’s a rela-
tively new play written by Lauren
Gunderson and Margot Melcon,
it builds on the old and famil-
iar notes of a Regency romantic
comedy, picking up where Jane
Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”
leaves off. It’s light and funny,
warm-hearted, and it’s not even a
spoiler to say that everything turns
out well in the end.
But there are some small but
significant ways that this particu-
lar production of a fun and frothy
play does up-end expectations in
just the right ways. Director Maris-
sa Wolf has wisely cast Portland’s
own Lauren Modica in the lead
photo by K ate s zrom /p ortland C enter s tage at t he a rmory
Cindy Im (from left), Treasure Lunan, Lauren Modica and Kailey Rhodes star in ‘Miss Bennet:
Christmas at Pemberley,’ now playing through Dec. 29 at Portland Center Stage at The Armory.
role as Mary Bennet, the middle
sister whom everyone discounts,
giving this comic beauty the op-
portunity to do more than liven
up the production as she regular-
ly does whenever she is on stage.
Modica herself has no doubt been
counted out as a romantic lead
too many times, but she has abso-
lutely spoiled this role for anyone
else. She brings an unexpected
complexity to Mary’s emotional
journey from an underestimated
brainiac to a woman who dares to
hope for love but who also does
not suffer fools. Her Mary is not
simply funny (though she abso-
lutely is); she is also formidable
and arresting; Modica’s perfor-
mance deepens the pleasures of
material that would in other hands
be a bit too comfortable.
Modica is surrounded by a vi-
brant cast who, like her, are clearly
relishing the experience. Joshua J.
Weinstein is particularly endear-
ing as Mary’s conveniently rich,
nerdy soulmate, absolutely selling
a hard-to-achieve balance of in-
nocent and charming and brilliant
and socially awkward. Kailey
Rhodes also stands out as Mary’s
younger sister Lydia, brilliantly
employing physical comedy to
drive home the ridiculous lengths
that Lydia goes to get what she
wants, purely for amusement. And
the diversity of the cast works to
elevate this material (which, let’s
face it, is not particularly realistic)
in a way that invites everyone into
the holiday fantasy that is being
served.
The story here isn’t surprising
or challenging, but it doesn’t have
to be. Director Wolf has made the
most of this solid cast, Gunder-
son’s and Melcon’s snappy dia-
logue, and a delightful production
design (Alex Wren Meadows’s
costumes are particularly daz-
zling) so that everything moves
with buoyancy and good cheer.
One couldn’t ask for a more nutri-
tious holiday bauble than this.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the first woman of color to serve
in that capacity. Her movie and
theater review column Opinion-
ated Judge appears regularly in
The Portland Observer. Find her
review blog at opinionatedjudge.
blogspot.com.