This solid production of Noel Coward's light as
air comedy bodes well for the new "adult theatre company" at Manassas'
Center for the Arts across the tracks from Old Town's railroad depot. (That
is "adult theatre" as in legitimate theater for grownups that enhances the
neighborhood, not the other kind that signals decline as it advertises with
multiple "x"'s .) One of its Artistic Directors, Scott Bailey, directs and
also stars in this production, bringing a fresh approach to a play that
proves its strengths and provides an entertaining evening.
Storyline: A successful novelist and his second wife invite a neighboring
mystic to conduct a séance in their home because the plot of the husband’s
next book is to include mysticism. She conjures up the spirit of the
novelist’s late first wife who refuses to leave and plots to regain her
position as his companion.By
reputation Coward’s plays are full of fluff. In actuality that fluff –
bright and funny as it is – covers a rock solid structure of a tightly
plotted comedy about fully developed characters in intriguing situations.
Yes, his dialogue is full of eminently quotable retorts and, yes, he makes
it looks so polished and perfect that he makes the upper class life seem a
thing of elegance, charm, intelligence and style and not necessarily a thing
of wealth, birth or social position. But it all works because he worked so
hard and so well at its foundation and only then added a posh patina. This,
one of his most successful plays, is a sterling example of both the solid
story and the polished storytelling.
Scott Bailey's approach to this oh-so-British
comedy is a smart one indeed, given the resources frequently available in
community theater. He and his cast minimize the Britishness and emphasize
the open friendliness of the characters. There is no cheap imitation of a
Hyde Park accent although there is also no false depreciatory southern drawl
to it either. No, the Hyde Park connection might be to the village on the
Hudson where the Roosevelt's chilled their martinis rather than the one in
London where Coward might have poured a few for very proper guests. Bailey's
"Charles Condomine" could well be an educated successful author living in
Manassas and taking the VRE to DC when he has to meet with his publisher.
The fact that the family dresses formally for dinner, that he prides himself
on making perfect martinis and that the family has a maid (played nicely by
Heather Plank) may not be completely Manassas-like, but they don't
throw the production as far off kilter as an obvious clunker of a veddy-British
accent would.
Bailey's cast is quite good, especially Patty
McCoart as the eccentric mystic who bicycles over for dinner and a séance.
and Lesley Wepplo as the late first wife she conjures up. Wepplo's "Elvira"
seems internally intrigued by the opportunity to return to and reclaim her
home and her marriage, and she is stunning in the gown in which she
materializes. It is almost as if she is a figment of her widower's
imagination as he recalls an earlier time with a memory bank filtered by
nostalgia. The production uses all the space in the Center for the Art's
Keller Theater in the round, placing scenes not only in the area defined by
the audience on all four sides but behind the audience at one end of the
hall.
Written by Noel Coward. Directed by Scott
Bailey. Design: Katherine Williamson (costume consultant) Drew Agan (lights,
stage manager) Andy Mays (photography). Cast: Scott Bailey, Angela Lemmon
Horan, Will Jarvis, Barbara Ann McAbee, Patty McCoart, Heather Plank, Lesley
Wepplo. |
