The Westmont College theater department presents a literary classic on stage, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, as adapted by playwright Kate Hamill. Hamill is known for infusing a modernized value set into existing characters, creating more relatable struggles for women stymied by the lack of agency placed upon them by the context of their era. Directed by Madeline Fanton, Westmont’s production of Little Women is sweet and earnest.
The story follows the March sisters, growing up in the northeast during the Civil War. With their father away fighting, the four sisters and their mother do their best to maintain a happy home despite fractured family and finances. Along with their friend Laurie, a young man who moves into the neighborhood, the five youths stumble toward adulthood.
Hamill’s version of Little Women feels born from a love for the original text, but it also gives Jo March, always a tomboy, some gender/sexuality-related shades of grey. It brings up an interesting question about the source material: From a modern perspective, the undertones of queerness for Jo’s character have always been there — but how much of that is original coding from the author (accidental or not) and how much is modern framework and social expectation? The window of time from the novel that Hamill presents, chapters before Jo marries (whether for love, lifestyle, or tradition), reinforce the queries of this examination.