RUTH

Even though Mrs. Gaskell wrote 130 years ago, her message of gender and class inequality is familiar today. Ruth is a young woman who is orphaned at 15, apprenticed to a dressmaker, seduced and abandoned by a thoughtless lord of the manor. Ruth's troubles could be melodramatic in the hands of a writer less able than Gaskell and a reader less empathetic than Eve Matheson. But Matheson is an actress of great depth. Every character in this production is given a fully rounded persona. Her sensitive reading gives not just a memorable sound for each person, but also a sense of place at every scene change. She hits every high and low point, down to the catch in her own voice at a young woman's loss of her lover. It is those vocal dynamics that keep us glued to the story. J.P. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 01]