There will come a time, I fear, when a librarian will not be a familiar character in the lives of much of an audience. But for now, "Underneath the Lintel", a one-woman show about a librarian, will ring familiar for most of us. At least at first, that is. Opening this week at The New Jewish Theatre, it's a tale of, if not obsession, at least fervent pursuit and how it changes a life.
Glynis Bell is the librarian – the character has no name – who works in a small town in the Netherlands. She's a woman in late middle age whose job it is to check in overdue books. One day she gets an ancient travel guide that's 113 years overdue. Who would return a book that late? She finds the slip from when it was borrowed, and the borrower, who only uses an initial, has an address in China.
And that's when we begin to slip into what is close to magical realism. Who has kept a post office box that long? The librarian has gone to China on a whim to pursue the mysterious culprit, and that begins a series of explorations that create a different view of the world for her. Bell's librarian is elusive at first – is she a comic character or a serious one? – but the complex role is well-played, certainly, as she explains all sorts of seemingly unrelated things to us, and shows her growing awareness of what she feels is interconnectedness. The script, though, seems jerky and disjointed at times. There's no intermission, running for about 90 minutes, and one wonders if the author was stretching what was essentially a one-act or cutting back a longer show. It needs tightening or expansion.
Lana Pepper directed and has things moving well. The lintel itself – not that sound-alike legume, as the librarian emphasizes at one point – is the product of scenic designer Kyra Bishop. The subtheme of folklore, which I found unexpected, does keep us interested.
Underneath the Lintel
through February 13, 2016
New Jewish Theatre
www.newjewishtheatre.org
Marvin & Harlene Wool Theatre
Jewish Community Center Family Complex
314-442-3283