Review of A Tale of Two Cities at Lifeline Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called A Tale of Two Cities. It was based on the novel by Charles Dickens and it was adapted by Christopher M. Walsh. It was directed by Elise Kauzlaric. The play is about a young woman named Lucie (Maggie Scrantom) who had a father named Dr. Manette (Sean Sinitski) and there is a man who comes to England who Lucie falls in love with called Charles Darnay (Nicholas Bailey). And he has a friend-ish enemy Sydney Carton (Josh Hambrock) who also is in love with Lucie. It took place during the revolution in France. It showed you that it was not a nice thing and people shouldn't have put those innocent people in jail and chopped off their heads. I thought this was a really cool show. I have never read the book before, but I really liked the play.

When you first meet Miss Pross (Katie McLean Hainsworth), you think, "That seems like a nice little governess." You think she would never kill anybody. But then she does! That made her seem heroic because of who she killed. I liked that a lot, I was like "Yeah! She did it!" It shows you that Miss Pross loves Lucie a lot. It shows you that you can't judge a book by its cover. Miss Pross looks like a children's book but inside it's like The Count of Monte Cristo. And every few pages there's a flower that meets a bunny and they do a little jig together. It was so sad when she went deaf. I was like, "It's not fair! She did something good! She won the fight! But now she's deaf!"

The Resurrection Man (John Henry Roberts) is in the play because he tells the story and he helps build characters. He helps people in the play and people in the audience if they don't understand something. He helps the audience by telling them what is going on. Miss Pross doesn't understand that she is deaf, but the Resurrection man makes her realize that. He brought characters closer together, too. He brought the Seamstress (Melissa Engle) and Sydney together. He was the one who said, you go up there and talk to him for a little bit. The Seamstress was all alone and she didn't have anybody that she knew that she could communicate to and she was in jail so nobody could help her. And then she met Sydney and then she had somebody that she could talk to and they became friends.

Madame Defarge (Carolyn Klein) and Monsieur Defarge (Dan Granata), when you first meet them you don't think they are that bad, but they get worse and worse, and by the end they are terrible people. They are husband and wife and they are basically the ones that start the revolution. Madame Defarge sometimes does good things, but they still have to do with killing people. Like one time she gives a knife to a man (Sean Sinitski) whose kid has been run over by a carriage so he can kill the man who ran him over. Monsieur Defarge is more kind-hearted because he thinks that they shouldn't put the Seamstress in jail because she was the mistress to Evremonde (Chris Hainsworth). She was doing that because she wanted to get her husband back. Now this is turning into a jerk paragraph. Here are the jerks of the play. Not the Seamstress or the father, but the other ones. Evremonde just wants to look at women's private parts. I think he did a good job playing this character, even though he is not at all like it. The actors who play the Defarges are great at being horrible people, even though they aren't in real life.

I think Lucie made the right choice to marry Charles Darnay because Sydney Carton was a drunk. They both seem devoted to her, so I think she might have been fine with either of them if one of them wasn't a drunk. Even though Sydney is devoted to her she wouldn't be happy. I think that Dickens could have made the love triangle more interesting by not making it an easy choice for Lucie. Sydney's choice is kind of about the love triangle, because he gives up his life so Lucie can be happy. He does make her happy after all, but if he'd stayed alive she might not have been so happy.

People who would like this show are people who like revenging fathers, awesome governesses, and starting your own revolution. You should see this play if you want to know how start a revolution. Step one, knit all your plans. Step two, tell your husband about it. Step three, tell all your neighbors about it. Step four, behead the king and queen. Step five, put everyone that you see in jail. And, there. Now you have your own revolution. The play is funny as well and also sad and touching and bittersweet. I think everyone should go see this show. It is such a great show and all the acting is really amazing.


Photos: Suzanne Plunkett