Local director takes a different route to get to Austen

THINK Jane Austen and you think Pride and Prejudice, right?

Not if you're director Kathryn MacMillan. While she is an Austen fan right down the line, "P&P" is, at best, a runner-up. For her, it's all about "Emma."

"It was the first thing I ever read and it's still my favorite," offered McMillan, who last night saw her version of "Emma" launch its six-week run at Center City's Lantern Theater with the first of five nights of previews. "I'm a big fan of all her writing, but 'Emma' is my favorite."

According to MacMillan, who, like Lucille Ball, is a Jamestown, N.Y., native, there were both artistic and logistical reasons that she knew that "Emma," which is seldom mounted theatrically, would be a worthwhile endeavor. Two of them are the main character and her internal struggles.

"Charles McMahon [Lantern's artistic director] and I have been talking about Austen for a few years, and we kept coming back to 'Emma,' " she said.

"It's a very personal story. It's a coming-of-age story, essentially. Emma Woodhouse is a beautiful, very, very clever young woman. She's about 21, which is about the age that if you're smart and privileged, you think you know everything and can conquer the world.

"One of the things her story is about is that she learns that adulthood isn't about controlling everyone's lives, but adulthood is about finding vulnerability and realizing you're not in control, that it's about just being the best person you can in chaotic circumstances.

"Being a love story," MacMillan added, "things work out well for her in the end. But she learns a lot when she thinks things in her life aren't going to work out. She spends a lot of time avoiding making her own choices and living her own life and sort of meddling in the lives of other people. She learns some painful lessons about being a grown-up."

MacMillan also had to take into consideration the Lantern's physical limitations. " 'Emma' is great in our space, because the Lantern is a very intimate venue," she reasoned. It also works, she suggested, because the play doesn't take place in exotic and opulent settings, but stays in one locale, a small town.

As a result, she said, the story is all the richer, because "Emma" is "peopled with all these small-town eccentrics. And they're hilarious. You have the fussbudget little old lady who talks too much, you have the handsome man who thinks he is more amazing then he is. You have a lot of really silly people.

"So, it felt like a right fit for the Lantern, because you're so close to the action in our theater. Doing a more intimate Austen felt like the right thing. The audience gets to be amongst the people in the little town."

As promised, local comedy superstar Tony Braithwaite delivers plenty of laughs with "Didn't Your Father Have This Talk With You?" which runs through Oct. 10 at Ambler's Act II Playhouse.

The hourlong monologue (frequently interrupted by the voice of his unseen father, who comments on, and makes suggestions about, Braithwaite's act) is drawn from his 12 years as a religion and sex-ed teacher (or "surf and turf," as he likes to say). Although advance word made it seem as if the show is one long "kids say the darndest things" riff, there's a lot more going on here, starting with a show-opening, very clever rap with which Braithwaite serves up a biographical sketch (didja know he once auditioned for the role of Chandler on "Friends?").

From there, he covers a lot of ground, including how and why he became a teacher at St. Joseph's Prep in North Philly; the Jesuit philosophy of education (humor plays a large role); and his own sexual history. And yes, he does refer to the pedophile scandals that have rocked the Catholic church, but does so in a hilarious, self-deprecating manner that is in no way distasteful or disrespectful.

There is also a segment - drawn from real life - that contains a slew of silly malapropisms from students and school officials alike.

Most of the comedy is hardly of the make-the-crowd-gasp-for-air variety - "droll" seems a better description than "flat-out hilarious" - but the laughs come regularly, many powered by Braithwaite's kind-of-nerdish, everyman demeanor and effortless stagecraft (a raise of an eyebrow, a shrug of the shoulders).

Toward the end, things bog down a bit, as Braithwaite interjects a "serious" segment that feels forced and awkward. But that certainly shouldn't keep anyone from schlepping out to Ambler for this winning turn.