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Writing for us
A CurtainUp Review
The Circle
Stanley Nemeth
South Coast Repertory has opened its new season with a glitteringly polished production of W. Somerset Maugham's rarely seen The Circle. With its undeniable wit and elegant construction, this 1921 country house comedy anatomizes marriage as it exists among two generations of upper class Britons.
Maugham's plot, which may be unfamiliar, contains two triangles, each of a husband, wife, and lover. The first of these includes Clive, a cuckolded husband, Lady Kitty, his ex-wife, and Lord Porteous, her second husband. Thirty years before the start of the play, Lady Kitty ran off to Italy with Lord Porteous, leaving her husband and five-year-old son Arnold to their own devices. The play opens with the return of this now aged couple to England and a family reunion negotiated by Arnold's curious wife. To complicate matters, the earlier abandoned husband Clive intrudes upon the visiting couple, losing no chance to wreak hilarious verbal havoc.
The second triangle, one of young people, consists of the stuffy MP and furniture collector Arnold, his lively but bored wife, and their pleasing house guest Teddie. Bringing matters full circle, Elizabeth and Teddie have fallen for each other. The central concern of the play thus becomes whether they will bolt like the lovers of thirty years ago.
Maugham's hall of mirrors action wittily calls to mind the famous question: Do people learn anything from the past, or is the only lesson the past has to offer that people have never learned anything from it?
The acting in this production is uniformly of high quality. Every cast member has the vocal range for the verbal wit. All, sound convincingly British, and are refreshingly free of any graceless, TV actor posturings.
While the cast forms a smooth ensemble, three of the actors should be singled out for special praise: Paxton Whitehead is fabulous as the ironic, gulling, and ultimately gulled again Clive. Like Lady Bracknell in Wilde' The Importance of Being Earnest, he's been given the best lines which are so judiciously placed, he needs throw none of them away. Equally good is Carole Shelley as the self-centered former beauty, Lady Kitty. She expertly suggests an aging woman eager to hide the inevitable, although clueless that less is sometimes more. Costume designer Walker Hicklin has skillfully coifed and dressed her -- hair just a little too unnaturally red, the expensive dresses too youthful and at exactly the right edge of garishness. Also outstanding is William Biff McGuire as the grumpy Lord Porteous. He delivers amusingly sour, perfectly timed comments on his wife's limitations and his own discontent, although sitcom fans may sense here that Maugham, too eager to please, may be tipping his hand and creating a precursor of Fred Mertz for Lady Kitty's Ethel.
The direction by Warren Shook is adroitly paced, with invented business serving, rather than undermining, the playwright. In one telling instance, Shook draws out the submerged poetry in Maugham's writing. Arnold, the collector of both a trophy wife and trophy furniture, has recently purchased an antique chair of which he's especially proud, though Lord Porteous declares it a fake. Later Shook has Teddie inadvertently and hilariously reveal that the treasured chair has a serious hidden flaw. At the close of Act 2, after Arnold has discovered his marriage is flawed, Shook has him lean back in the chair, only to have it break apart as well.
The set by Ralph Funicello is gorgeous and made highly pertinent. Its grand ceilings, tall windows, pillars, and elegant colors suggest both a tranquil opulence and a museum-like coldness, features reflecting the taste of the too orderly, largely passionless Arnold. They also make credible the narrow confinement and voiced boredom of the athletic, dance-loving, passionate Elizabeth.
Finally, it should be asked why this work, like the rest of Maugham's, has fallen so much out of favor. Although it's set in a pretty narrow stratum of a particular past society, the behavior and wit of its characters are not unduly dated. On the contrary, provide Arnold with a secret mistress and he's an eerie Prince Charles to his wife's Lady Di. I suspect the play is infrequently performed because of what's missing from it. The author's view of the human comedy lacks any powerful feelings of "oughtness" directed toward the characters. He has no interest in correcting manners through ridicule, regaling us instead with the witty remarks of upper class types who behave like persons in the tabloid stories sold in modern supermarkets. Once the remarks have been heard, all that's left is the surface presentation of bad behavior. Unfortunately, that has no more lingering interest than the society column in yesterday's newspaper.
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The Circle Written by W. Somerset Maugham Directed by Warner Shook Cast: Nancy Bell (Elizabeth), John Hines (Arnold), John-David Keller (Footman), Rebecca Dines (Anne), Douglas Weston (Teddie), Paxton Whitehead (Clive), Carole Shelley (Lady Kitty), William Biff McGuire (Lord Porteous), Travis Vadin (Footman) Costume Design: Walker Hicklin Scenic Design: Ralph Funicello Sound Design and Music: Michael Roth Lighting Design: York Kennedy Running Time: 2 hours and 35 minutes, including two ten-minute intermissions South Coast Repertory Theater, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA./ (714) 708-5555/ www.scr.org. Running 8-31-01 through 10-07-01. Opening 9-07-01 Reviewed by Stanley H. Nemeth based on September 9,2001 performance |
