Poet Emily Dickinson is an icon of 19th century American poetry. Born into an educated family in 1830 in the small college town of Amherst, Mass., Dickinson was, however, considered a rather eccentric young woman by the time she was in her late 20s.
Her poetry was intellectual and creative, and unlike the other young women of her era, she saw it not just as a pleasant pastime or a way to correspond with an admirer, but as a passionate vocation.
“It set her somewhat apart,” said Langley playwright and actress Martha Furey. “Emily was one of three children, all of whom seemed to be quite lively and social as young people.”
But Emily was quite ahead of her time, Furey said.
“To fire off hundreds of poems to the publisher of The Atlantic Monthly magazine and expect him to take her seriously was a bit much for her family and for Emily as well, especially since the publisher found her poems strange, explosive and rejectable.”
Furey is one of the most knowledgeable devotees of Emily Dickinson — of both her life and her poetry. She has studied Emily for 20 years, including time in Ireland.
In her play, “Tea with Emily,” Furey brings this literary expertise to the stage in an intimate evening portraying the celebrated poet.
Emily Dickinson retreated into the confines of her family’s large home in her late twenties, always wearing white, rarely receiving visitors, and spending her later years there with her unmarried sister Vinnie, Furey said.
Thus her mode of socializing was to write strange but newsy letters and poems to friends, family and “different men that she herself fancied,” Furey said.
The play covers most of Emily’s life as she unravels her story in a fast-paced, humorous, everyday sort of way
“Very quickly you begin to see and hear where those fantastic, heartfelt poems and letters truly came from, as she moves around her sitting room in her white dress, serving cake, dusting tables and dancing to imaginary fiddle music.”
Furey wrote the first draft of “Tea with Emily” for a performance in Ireland, then expanded it for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland three years ago.
There it received critical praise.
“Furey brings the 19th century poet to life with three-dimensional character, no mere biographical outline,” wrote The Scotsman, which gave “Tea with Emily” a four-star review.
“What comes across is Dickinson’s enormous strength of character, even though she describes herself as timid, and her unshakeable faith in her own talent.”
Furey’s play was one of hundreds being performed each day in Edinburgh.
“Every little nook and cranny was turned into a theater,” Furey said. Her play was staged in a room “in a garage of an office building,” she said. “They set up a restaurant for the play, then it it became an office building again.”
“Tea with Emily” has a small set –– curtains, antique furniture, three little tables with vintage tablecloths.
“It’s a sitting room in the 19th century,” Furey said “Emily serves spice cake, talks about the furniture, her publishing problems, gardening and baking. There are little anecdotes, stories about her life in this big house, how much she loved it.”
“Tea with Emily” can be seen this weekend at the Deer Lagoon Grange, new home of the Island Arts Council. The Grange is open for ticket sales Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Also selling tickets are Moonraker Books and The Golden Otter Bookstore.
