SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Bedroom Farce
By Elyse Sommer
|
You really are coarse, aren't you? Coarse and violent.— Susannah You're the one who makes me violent. I was a pacifist before I met you.—Trevor Susannah and Trevor's arguments not only make a wreck of their marriage, but wreak havoc in whichever of the play's three bedrooms one or both of them show up. |
Larry Keith & Cynthia Harris in Bedroom Farce
|
Despite putdowns about his mass producing plays and his deliberate appeal to popular taste, more than 40 of his plays have been produced in London's West End. American productions of Communicating Doors, Private Fears Public Places and Intimate Exchanges have made audiences on this side of the pond increasingly aware that this is an extaordinary playwright, whose deliberate blurring of tragedy and comedy makes his plays as darkly underscored as they are funny (think Chekhov's insistence on tagging his plays as comedies). As for the truism about doors to support the farce label, as anyone smart enough to buy a ticket to TACT's Bedroom Farce can attest, this IS a farce whose larger-than-life characters are moved in and out of real situations with timing that's sharp and hilarious as any slamming door.
Bedroom Farce has eight larger-than life characters, all married. The fact that everything plays out in the bedrooms of three of the couples, hardly makes this a sex farce. Sure, there's a lot of activity going on in each bedroom (eating snacks, drinking cocoa, talking, fighting, building a table, reading), but none of it includes sex. And so, as Ayckbourn's farce has no slamming doors, so it features a sex farce setting without sex.
While all the bedrooms are visible, the action shifts back and forth as the fourth and wildly dysfunctional couple, Trevor (Mark Alhadeff) and Susannah (Eve Bianco), descend separately or together on the others, wreaking havoc wherever they go. The first bedroom belongs to Trevor's parents, Delia (Cynthia Harris) and Ernest (Larry Keith), a forever-together couple whose cozy-comfy longevity is bolstered with hilariously trivial conversation and snacks taken in bed as an anniversary treat. The second, slightly raised bedroom belongs to Kate (Ashley West) and Malcolm (Sean Dougherty) who are giving a big housewarming party. Unfortunately, Trevor and Susannah are on the guest list, as is Trevor's former girlfriend Jan (Margaret Nichols). When the insecure Susannah sees Trevor and Jan kissing, havoc ensues sending the guests scurrying for less troubled waters and leaving Malcom to put together a table which turns into a potently funny symbol of their marriage. In the meantime, Jan's husband Nick (Scott Schafer) is suffering the physical agonies of a wrenched back. When Trevor, who has a talent for always doing and saying the wrong thing, arrives to apologize for the party-pooping kiss, he adds mental agony to Nick's back pain.
Set designer Robin Vest has accomplished a major feat in making the small Beckett stage accommodate three bedrooms. And, with Jenn Thompson at the helm, Ayckbourn's masterful craftsmanship is evident in every seamless boudoir to boudoir shift.
Naturally, any farce is only as good as its farceurs, and this entire ensemble squeezes every farcical nuance from their roles. Harris and Keith are beguilingly banal as the older couple. Scott Schafer makes Nick's physical and mental agonies hilarious. and Mark Alhadeff is perfection as a selfish adolescent in an adult's body whose every " Sorry" underscores his boorish ineptitude. I could say something glowing about every member of this cast, but you get the idea. They all give memorable performances and this Bedroom Farce is a wonderful, fun way for TACT to launch its season.
Links to Other Ayckbourn plays Reviewed at Curtainup
Absent Friends
Absurd Person Singular
By Jeeves (with Andrew Lloyd Weber)
A Chorus of Disapproval
Comic Potential
Communicating Doors
House and Garden
Intimate Exchanges
Taking Steps
Private Fears in Public Places
Woman In Mind
|
Bedroom Farce By Alan Ayckbourn D irected by Jenn Thompson Cast: Mark Alhadeff (Trevor), Eve Bianco (Susannah), Sean Dougherty (Malcolm), Cynthia Harris (Delia), Larry Keith (Ernest), Margaret Nichols (Jan), Scott Schafer (Nick), Ashley West (Kate) Sets: Robin Vest Costumes: Martha Hally Lights: Aaron Copp Sound: Stephen Kunken Music: Amir Khosrowpour Props: Jennifer Blazek Fight director: Ax Norman Dialect Coach: Amelia White Stage Manager: Mel McCue Running Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes, including inermission The Actors Company at the Beckett 10 West 42nd Street 212/279 4200 www.tactnyc.org From 10/05/08; opening `0/13/08; closing 11/05/08. Tickets: $25-$55 Monday, Thursday & Friday at 7:30pm Saturday at 2 & 8pm, Sunday at 3pm Reviewed October 13 by Elyse Sommer |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. |
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide
