The Stranger, June 9th, 2005
Some 19th-century novels can handle having a shrieky, clappy gospel interlude inserted into their middles. (I quite liked the seaside choir in the pseudo-Bollywood movie Bride & Prejudice.) Others, like Kate Chopin's wispy, mystical novella The Awakening, fall to pieces at the first hint of unambiguous stridency. In Book-It's adaptation, the gospel revival comes when Edna Pontellier hysterically stamps on her wedding ring and dashes a vase against the hearth. Director Jane Jones seems to have been afraid we weren't going to get it. The show is very clear (certainly clearer than the book): ...
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