[ Theater Review ]

Cyrano’s ‘Libby’ offers Alaska history lesson

By Marissa Palmer
Special to the Northern Light
Published June 17, 2003

Elizabeth Ware is practicing time travel. For 80 minutes a night, she transforms Cyrano’s Off Center Playhouse in downtown Anchorage into St. Paul Island. The year becomes 1879 and she becomes Elizabeth “Libby” Beaman, the first American woman to set foot on the Pribilofs in the Bering Sea.

In “Libby,” adapted by Ware’s husband and University of Alaska Anchorage professor, David Edgecombe, Ware offers a warm, entertaining performance as she narrates Beaman’s year-long adventure on St. Paul. Shifting her tone with amazing fluidity from dry, self-deprecating humor and friendly conversation to deep apprehension and even sheer terror, Ware maintains a remarkable focus and keeps the audience engaged throughout.

The play itself is adapted from a book of the same name consisting of Beaman’s journals, letters and sketches, which was compiled by Beaman’s granddaughter, Betty John. Ware’s charismatic portrayal draws the audience into the life of this extraordinary woman and her role in Alaska history.

As a daughter of Washington D.C. social privilege, Beaman was able to count Abraham Lincoln and Rutherford B. Hayes as old family friends. From volunteering in the hospital prison ward for Confederate soldiers at 19 (where she met her future husband, John Beaman), to convincing her father to hire her as a mapmaker in his office, Libby was romantic, feminist, well-mannered and outspoken all at once. She herself asked President Hayes to find a job for her husband, which gave rise to their Alaska odyssey.

Beaman braved a voyage no one thought she should make and weathered a year of open hostility, the violent slaughter of fur seals, ice storms, scurvy and near starvation, all of which are recounted by Ware as Libby with passion and vivid detail.

The possible monotony of a single-character narrative is avoided in this case by Ware deftly stepping into the shoes (and voices) of other characters, including sailors, Aleuts and John Beaman’s superior, referred to only as the Senior Agent.

While the play may seem to drag in a few brief sections where a too much background information is given, overall “Libby” is enjoyable and informative.

“Libby” can be seen at Cyrano’s, 413 D Street, through June 30 at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and 3 p.m. on Sunday. For tickets, call 274-2599.