by Joanne Engelhardt
Despite the fact that “Underdog: The Other Other Brontë” has three excellent leading actors as well as a half dozen fine performers in supporting roles, the play itself has a perplexing— occasionally rambling—storyline.
Written by playwright Sarah Gordon, “Underdog” is the somewhat irreverent retelling of the life and legend of the Brontë sisters. Their lives included a lot of competitive sisterhood and sibling domination dynamics that shaped their uneven rise to fame.
For those not familiar with the Brontë sisters and who wrote which book, here’s who wrote what:
–Charlotte Bronte wrote “Jane Eyre.”
–Emily Bronte wrote “Wuthering Heights.”
–Anne Bronte wrote substantial poetry and the novels “Agnes Grey,” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Anne and her novels are not nearly as familiar as Charlotte and Emily. This unjust eclipse of Anne Brontë is the subject of the play.
In the mid-19th Century, it was considered objectionable for women to write books, so Charlotte wrote under the male pen name of Currer Bell, Emily was Ellis Bell and Anne was Acton Bell. (It is amusing to note that they used their own initials for their pen names.)
Playwright Gordon centers her play on Charlotte, beautifully enacted here by Raven Douglas. Douglas does an excellent job of conveying Charlotte’s determination and her strong will to succeed in a man’s world, as well as her willingness to undercut her sisters’ dreams to further her own. It is historical fact that Charlotte sometimes belittled Anne’s work and actively interfered with the republication of “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” following Anne’s death. Based on that, the play spins a tale of intense sibling rivalry amongst the sisters.
In Gordon’s play, Anne is the “other other Brontë” (In most writing about the Brontë’s it is brother Branwell who is given that moniker).
As Anne, Aleisha Lew is sensitive and caring. But she’s angry at Branwell (played by Dan C) for wasting the family’s meager income on booze. Realizing that he is a lost cause, she decides she must help her family acquire enough money for food and necessities, so she applies for a job as a governess. Her employer is so tyrannical, however, that Anne soon returns home with only temporary monetary relief for her family. It is that experience that provided the model for her loosely autobiographical novel about a governess, “Agnes Grey.”
(Branwell, a portrait painter, is a minor player in Gordon’s rendering of the Bronte family.)
The third sister, Emily (Naomi Murray), who also writes poetry, is less showy, but she brings a calming influence to the family dynamic when needed. She was, of course, the author of “Wuthering Heights.”
There are also six versatile actors who each play a number of different roles over the course of the two-hour play. Worth mentioning is Keith Larson’s brief role as Smith, who flirts with Charlotte. (Some historians believe he’s the basis of the dashing and tortured Rochester in Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre.”)
Alas, a primary weakness of “Underdog” is that it lacks a cohesive, plausible script. The language is clever and the characters entertaining, but the story is confused.
Act 2 is particularly difficult to follow due to its many short scenes that often don’t connect with each other. At the end, there are recriminations and, eventually, forgiveness. But in between there’s confusion, shared by the characters and some in the audience as well.
A shoutout to costume designer Greet Jaspaert who created a multitude of costumes for the six ensemble players to wear. Jaspaert must have had a field day coming up with all the period costumes needed for those scenes because they each change their outfits five or six times! That means credit also goes to backstage dressers who must switch out those costumes in less than a minute as actors dash on and off stage.
One problem with The Pear’s production is that the audience sits on three sides of the theater, with the “stage” at the far end. Actors frequently use the entire middle of the room for scenes as well. But because the audience is on three sides, actors occasionally turn their backs on part of the audience when they deliver a few lines. This results in some audience members missing what they say here and there.
“Underdog the Other Other Bronte” runs at The Pear Theater in Mountain View through Novembe 22, 2026. For further information, click here
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Rating: **1/2 (For an explanation of TheaterStorm’s rating system, click here.)
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“Underdog: the Other Other Bronte” by Sarah Gordon. Produced by The Pear Theatre. Director: Wynne Chan. Assistant Director: Karen Law. Stage Manager: Kelly Weber Barraza. Sound Designer: Tina Vo. Costume Designer: Greet Jaspaert. Lighting Designer: Raven Manalo. Technical Director: Louis Stone-Collonge. Intimacy & Fight Coordinator: Bessie Zolno. Projection Designer: Qian Zhang.
Cast:
Charlotte: Raven Douglas; Emily: Naomi Murray; Anne: Aleisha Lew; Ingram/Others: Joseph Alvarado; Branwell/Others: Dan C; Smith/Others: Keith Larson; Cunliffe/Others: Jaime Melendez; Newby/Others: Leslie Newport Wright; Gaskell/Others: Lauren Rhodes.