Emily Dickinson's love life?

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

University Theatre director John Schmor has a tiger by the tail - Emily Dickinson.

Yes, the Emily Dickinson - poet, wisp, reclusive Belle of Amherst who reportedly hid away in her mansion, thinking genteel thoughts and writing sensitive poetry.

OPENING THIS WEEK

Not so, says Schmor. At least, not according to the portrait painted by Madeleine Olnek in her play ``Wild Nights With Emily.''

This Emily Dickinson, Schmor insists, is different - ``a woman very much of the world, fantastically alive to people she cared about.''

One person she cared deeply about was Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, a lifelong friend who married Emily Dickinson's brother, Austin. The letters the two women wrote each other are a subject of much speculation and controversy. They are passionate letters, some say love letters.

Olnek takes that direction, offering up a view of Dickinson in sharp contrast to an image carefully manicured by her family.

``There is plenty of evidence that both Austin and (his mistress) Mabel Todd messed with the poems, erasing Susan's name and cutting out words or phrases,'' Schmor says. ``Susan's part in Emily's life and writing was ignored or trivialized.''

The play jumps back and forth in time and revisits poems and letters from Emily and Susan, historical records, gossip, songs and dances from the period.

"It is not a shy play," Schmor says.

It is also a play loaded with humor and ripe with speculation. Playing Emily Dickinson will be Jana Schmieding, with Alexis Papedo as Susan Dickinson and Mattie Dickinson, and Sarah Turnquist as Mabel Todd. Blythe Daniels, Emily Peterson, Steve Wehmeier, Chris Hirsh and Ian Armstrong will create multiple roles.

Where does Schmor stand on the Emily-Susan question?

`I am convinced, from what I have read, that the relationship between Emily Dickinson and Susan Gilbert was one of deeply passionate and intimate love. Is there historical evidence that this was a `consummated' lesbian relationship? Of course not. What possible form could such `evidence' even take?'

But he says the writings are very persuasive and that the relationship between Emily and Susan is worth considering.

"Dickinson's poems come alive in a new way," he says.

"If the play makes an imaginative leap without perfect historical proof," he says, "at least it does so to honor Dickinson's art and Susan's importance to it."

PLAY PREVIEW

Wild Nights With Emily

What: A passionate view of American poet Emily Dickinson emerges in Madeleine Olnek's play; directed by John Schmor

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and March 4-6 and 12-13; and 2 p.m. March 7

Where: Robinson Theatre, 1109 Old Campus Lane, on the University of Oregon campus 

How much: $5, $9 and $12, at the EMU box office (346-4363) and an hour before performances at the UT box office (346-4191)