What is it about shrubbery that enchants the British? Whatever it is, the bushes outside a country home, though never seen, figure prominently in the delightful season opener from Good Theater of Portland.

In its world premiere, playwright Rob Urbinati’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s posthumously published novella “Lady Susan” has a lot of fun with a work that presents a critical view of early 19^th century English society. It’s a comedy of manners, full of characters who are very politely at odds with one another.

The period in question was a time when a young widow could have a tough time navigating male-centric inheritance laws as well as the expectations of a highly judgmental (and quite dotty) upper crust. Her struggles can be very funny and yet quite real in the not-so-distant world of this play.

The very attractive Lady Susan (Brynn Lewallen) arrives at the country estate of her brother-in-law Charles (Joseph Bearor) amid a swirl of gossip about her supposedly scandalous activities in “town” (London) since her husband’s death. Charles is a good fellow, but his wife Catherine (Hannah Daly) views Lady Susan as simply out to get her inheritance, by law now under the control of Charles, by any means necessary. Catherine fears a seduction of her younger brother Reginald (Jay Mack) may be in the widow’s plans.

Enter a couple of very eccentric city dwellers, Sir James (Nathan Gregory) and Mrs. Johnson (Amy Roche), the latter with Lady Susan’s independent-minded daughter Frederica (Halsey Redman) in tow, and you have the makings for much repartee and connivance amid an increasing tangle of suspicion.

In an early performance, each actor (in studied accent) had moments to shine over the length of this one hour and 45 minute show, with no intermission. Obviously well rehearsed, the production’s 13 scenes, all taking place in a single living room, came and went in ways reminiscent of the page-turning pleasures of reading an Austen novel.

Roche and Gregory provided a lot of the broad laughs for the show with their characters’ expressed aversion to all things outdoors (including the unthinkable offstage shrubbery).  Mack and Redman set loose the passions of youth, the former through an overconfident strut, the latter through an insistent pout. Bearor and a very funny Daly embodied opposites in temperament who affectionately squabble over their houseguest’s true intentions.

Indeed, Lewallen’s Lady Susan is a handful, skillfully manipulative (often delivered with a wink) and yet desperate underneath, she’s a model for the plight of an intelligent but unattached and unmoneyed woman in the man’s world of the time. The actress offered a charismatic performance that centered the action and brought home the message that female resourcefulness, when called upon, can be an art form in itself.

Co-directors Brian P. Allen and James Noel Hoban have gone all in for this comedy with a message. With a large cast (for a small venue in these times) of well-chosen local actors and a set (by Steve Underwood and Hoban) and costumes (by Michelle Handley) that are materially supportive of this thoroughly engaging and highly entertaining play, Good Theater has renewed its status as the place to go for high quality theater in Portland.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

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