The Heiress Explores the Perils of Inheritance

“The 1850s were a bad hair decade,” laughs Avery Clyde, who will play the lead in the Theatre Group of Santa Barbara City College’s (SBCC) upcoming production of The Heiress. Clyde is very attractive, and her observation came by way of explaining how she will adopt a convincing look as the heiress Catherine Sloper, whose fate is largely determined by the perception that she is unusually plain. With just over a week to go before the show hits the stage at SBCC’s Garvin Theatre, the veteran actress is buoyant at the prospect of playing this part, partially because of the company she’s keeping. Film legend Olivia de Havilland and, more recently, Broadway star Cherry Jones have both wowed audiences in the role. When The Heiress opens here on October 15, the Los Angeles–based Clyde will be joined by some of the top talent in our area, including Tom Hinshaw as Catherine’s domineering father and Josh Jenkins as her handsome and unreliable suitor, Morris Townsend.

Although the premise of the play comes from the Henry James novel Washington Square, playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz clearly added something special when they adapted this story for the stage. The Heiress was an instant hit when it premiered back in 1947, and since then it’s been revived four times on Broadway and in countless regional productions. Set in the mid-19th century, The Heiress hinges on the question of what motivates a man to marry. Catherine Sloper is the only daughter of a wealthy New York doctor, and, as her mother died in childbirth, she has the expectation not only of a substantial allowance in the form of a trust fund but also the inheritance of her father’s fortune and his elegant Washington Square townhouse.

Enter Morris Townsend, the handsome man who asks for Catherine’s hand in marriage. In a series of tense scenes between father and daughter, the ailing and emotionally abusive doctor makes it clear that he sees Townsend as a gold digger, and he refuses to grant his blessing. Catherine refuses to bend to his will, but Townsend, upon learning that she may be disinherited, clears out for California, leaving the brokenhearted girl alone to reconcile with her now seemingly vindicated daddy. For Clyde, the core dynamic between father and daughter reveals the doctor’s weak spot — he never finished mourning his lost wife.