The Clarence Brown Lab Theatre brings to life “The Moors,” a dark yet comical play of love, power and betrayal. The show opened on Wednesday, Oct. 18 and runs every day through Nov. 5, and all tickets are free to UT students.
“The Moors” focuses on the lives of two sisters and their dog who live in an isolated manor on the bleak English moors until the arrival of a strong-willed governess disrupts their untimely lives.
Written by Jen Silverman in 2017, this play is based on the lives of the Brontë family. The three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne are notable novelists and poets who grew up with their brother Branwell in a hyper-religious family in Haworth, Yorkshire, in the British moorlands.
The dark and isolated lives of the Brontë family are strongly reflected in the brooding, fictional world of “The Moors.”
The small nature of Clarence Brown’s Lab Theatre makes watching the philosophical events and debauchery of “The Moors” all the more intimate for the audience. As you walk in, the elaborate simplicity of the set accompanied by the small sounds of wind, birds and crickets strikes the audience and makes one feel as if they are utterly alone and inside the isolated manor on the moorlands.
There are only two props on the stage — old and musty chairs — placed in front of sheer panels of molding baroque wallpaper. You can almost smell the cold, stale air.
However, as the play delivers its first scenes, it is not quite as initially dark as one may expect it to be.
Huldey, the youngest sister, played by Molly Brennan, a senior studying theatre, brings an immediate comical effect through her overly dramatic sentiments and bright pink attire. Huldey’s childish innocence and longing to be heard in such an isolated place gives the audience a good laugh but brings great annoyance to her fellow stage players.
Huldey, however, is starkly contrasted by her eldest sister, Agatha, portrayed by Catherine Blevins, a senior studying theatre. Agatha is equally as dramatic as her youngest sister, but she is fiery and fierce – embodying the image of, at least what she believes is, power and control as she fills the position of head of household for the Parson family – as Master Branwell is nowhere to be found.
Upon the arrival of governess Emilie, played by Ella Trisler, a senior studying theatre, the oddity of the family in the moors becomes strangely apparent as Emilie discovers she was falsely enticed to be a governess for young Huldey under the impression that the mysterious Master Branwell had summoned her when he did not.
Emilie is the outsider here, and her expression of confusion at the state of the family aligns with the questions the audience asks itself. And it is a unique and comical approach.
The moors are a dangerous place, filled with many twists and turns, quicksand and dangerous beasts that may be willing to eat you if you are not careful.
One such beast is the Mastiff, played by Jackson Ahern, a junior studying theatre. The Mastiff is an anthropomorphic, philosophical dog. He is in almost every scene, quiet and obedient, listening to everything everyone has to say but wondering why no one ever asks him his opinion or how he feels.
That is until he meets the Moor-hen, played by Abigail McCarter, a junior studying theatre. The Moor-hen is a naive and clumsy hen who literally crashes into the Mastiff’s melancholy monologue.
The relationship between the Mastiff and the Moor-hen is truly something odd, yet sweet to behold. For the first time, the Mastiff and the Moor-hen experience something that they describe can only be happiness – something that had previously not existed in their lives on the moors.
The subtle expressions of the Mastiff and Moor-hen’s animal-like mannerisms convey to the audience that they aren’t just humans dressed up acting as a dog and a bird, but they are truly a mastiff and moor-hen, and we are just witnessing the personification of even an animal’s attempts to find love and happiness in a place as horrible and lonely as the moors.
Another notable character of “The Moors” is Majory, the maid – or is it Mallory? Or is it Margaret? There is no definitive answer. The maid is by far the most complex character in the show and is played by Jasmine Handy, a senior studying theatre.
The maid uses her split personality disorder to not only add further confusion to the whirlwind of oddities that happens in the moors but also to control and manipulate her masters into performing her own twisted will. Moreover, her character offers many moments of comedic relief and acts as the catalyst that chips away at the unstable mind of young Huldey.
The twisted nature of “The Moors” investigates forbidden love through the simple nature of biological incompatibilities as well as the fear of what may happen if you lose that love and joy. What if you lose the happiness you have finally found after years of desperately attempting to achieve? Will you ever be able to find it again? What does the wretched longing to be heard and seen do to a mind after so long? Is there really power in isolation, or is there power in being known by others?
By the end of the show, each character will have made their discoveries to these questions, that is if there are even answers, but the audience will never truly know.
In desperate attempts to never be lonely again, a shocking tale of murder ensues.
However, the most shocking part of the show is not the interest of forbidden love or even unexpected murder but a song that is performed by Huldey. After her psychotic break, she breaks the fourth wall with the audience and begins singing a power ballad that is chillingly hilarious. Brennan’s performance in this scene is reputable and brings all the strangeness of the show to a head.
The ending of “The Moors” leaves the audience in a state of perplexity as the lights suddenly black out upon the finale – they can’t help but ask the question, “What just happened?” even though they are aware of exactly what just happened.
“The Moors” does not end the way we want it to but the way it must because at the end of the day, the bleakness of the moorlands holds all the power – there is no savior and no escape from the infinite desolation that dwells within and encapsulates everything that wills to survive in the moors.
