A revival of The Heiress, a 1947 play based on the Henry James novella Washington Square, opens at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York on Nov. 1. It stars (from left) Judith Ivey, Dan Stevens, David Strathairn and Jessica Chastain.
October 28, 2012
A much-anticipated revival of The Heiress, a 1947 play based on the Henry James novella Washington Square, opens in New York on Thursday. It marks the Broadway debut of two accomplished young stars — Jessica Chastain, the Academy Award nominee from The Help, and Dan Stevens, from the hit television series Downton Abbey.
On the surface, the story of The Heiress seems simple enough — a wealthy young woman in Victorian New York is torn between her controlling father and a young, penniless suitor. Is the father being overprotective? Is the young man just a cad? But there's much more going on, says director Moisés Kaufman.
"Henry James — because his brother, William James, was a psychologist — he really understood a lot about human psychology and he got so much so right so early on," Kaufman says. He describes the revival as "very Jamesian" in its darkness and ambiguity.
"Henry James doesn't write about villains and saints," Kaufman says. "He writes about people with flesh and blood. And one of the things that we kept talking about in this play was that those kind of ambiguities make the production richer."
Hollywood star Jessica Chastain plays the heiress, Catherine, and David Straithairn plays her father, Dr. Austin Sloper. The petite red-haired Chastain is all but unrecognizable in a tangled wig of frizzy brown hair and a jangle of awkward mannerisms, playing an only child trying desperately to get her father's approval. Chastain says she was attracted to the role because of the character's arc.
READ MORE: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/28/163723461/star-studded-heiress-considers-a-womans-worth
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