‘Cycle’ Attempts to Scale the Brontes’ Creative Heights

As the wind wuthers around a bleak country churchyard, a gravestone slides back to disgorge a procession of eerily lit, white-swathed corpses, who call out in echoing voices for their lost loved one.

Not a bad way to commence “The Bronte Cycle,” John O’Keefe’s ambitious but problematic drama about the fabled Bronte sisters and their progression from obscurity to literary greatness. Unfortunately, Elizabeth Craven’s staging of O’Keefe’s play, presented by Cal Rep at the Edison Theatre, alternates between the visually striking and the melodramatically excessive.

The three saving graces of this overblown evening are Joni Allen, Jennifer Rives and Dawn Flood, who play their respective roles of Charlotte, Emily and Anne with welcome restraint.

Fertile terrain for generations of biographers, the Bronte saga is a sticky wicket for the playwright. How, after all, does one convincingly dramatize the effects of rural isolation on burgeoning genius? O’Keefe strives to emulate the Brontes’ own fervid literary styles, but his dialogue is derivative and hyperbolic. When Charlotte reads Emily’s private poetry, Emily rants, “I’ll haunt you from my grave for you have taken my soul.” We understand Emily’s pique, but enough already.

Not surprisingly, considering that none of the Bronte siblings made old bones, death imagery abounds. However, Craven’s attempts to interject life into the threnody fall flat. The early scenes, in which the adult actors play the Brontes as children, parody rather than portray childhood, with the performers shrieking and scampering to the outermost limits of our patience.

Particularly strident is Chris McCool as the unfortunate Branwell, whose glaring red hair surely never occurred in nature.

Similar slips occur in this otherwise physically handsome production. Chris Kittrell’s lighting and Mark Abel’s sound perfectly complement the action, but David Ledger’s spare set requires the actors to turn a massive gravestone sideways for an alternate playing area. And Yoonmi Choi’s costumes are effectively austere--with the hideous exception of a garish yellow dress that belongs in another play.

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* “The Bronte Cycle,” Cal Rep at the Edison, 213 E. Broadway, Long Beach. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; May 13 and 20, 2 p.m.; Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7 p.m. Ends May 20. $20. (562) 432-1818. Running time: 3 hours, 15 minutes.