City Lit’s original stage adaptation of Owen Wister’s 1902 novel The Virginian focuses on the experience of two easterners adjusting to the rough-and-ready way of life in pre-statehood Wyoming in the 1880s. One is “The Virginian” (he has no other name), the foreman on a ranch owned by a wealthy cattle baron. The other is Molly Wood, a genteel schoolteacher from Vermont. Their friendship evolves slowly and shyly into romance, until the Virginian leads a posse to track down a gang of cattle rustlers. With no reliable legal system available in this far-flung territory, the men feel they must take the law into their own hands—and cattle theft is a hanging offense. Molly’s conflicted emotions are tested even further when the leader of the rustlers challenges the cowboy she loves to a shoot-out at sundown—a classic trope of Western novels (and, later, movies and TV shows) that found its first depiction in Wister’s story.
The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains
Through 2/20: Fri-Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; also Mon 2/7 and 2/14, 7:30 PM, City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-293-3682, citylit.org, $34 ($29 seniors, $12 students and military).
L.C. Bernadine and Spencer Huffman’s script strips Wister’s sprawling narrative to its essence. Ray Toler’s set design uses movable flats to depict various indoor locations, with painted backdrops evoking the sprawling wide-open spaces against which the drama is set. Musical underscoring is provided live by solo cellist and composer Kelsee Vandervall. The 15-member ensemble under Terry McCabe’s direction includes Robert Hunter Bry as the soft-spoken Virginian, Ben Auxier as his rustler nemesis, Liz Falstreau as Molly, and David Fink as an ill-fated cowboy with a deep attachment to his pony Pedro. In a story where humans’ relationships to their horses is an essential element, the use of puppet horses designed by The Puppet Company brings an engaging playfulness to the proceedings, enhancing the production’s folksy, homespun feel.
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