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Farce is one of the most difficult theatrical productions to mount. When done well, with solid actors and breakneck pacing, the results can be clever and highly entertaining. When done badly, the cleverness can still exist, but entertaining gives way to boring, ludicrous or just plain bad. So it goes for TheatreWorks' latest production of How the Other Half Loves, an updated farce by Alan Ayckbourn that manages to be clever without ever attaining good.
The cleverness of the script resides in the concept of dividing the stage as through a prism, showing parts of two houses, one upper crust and the other lower middle. The result is showing two households at once where the wife from one couple and the husband from another deceive their spouses of their affair by using a third couple, who are then inadvertently drawn into the deception during two separate, though concurrently staged dinner parties.
To explain any further would be a spoiler, and if there's one thing not worth spoiling about this production, it's the cleverness of the plot. Would that the characters were as impressive, but the author has populated this clever world with the most boorish, obsequious and downright unlikable characters, none with a single redeeming quality. Imagine a sitcom version of A Flea in Her Ear. Still, there's a sense that if played well, this show might be worth watching. Unfortunately, Director Dina Kay has brought in a thoroughly unimpressive cast, and save for one or two almost-bright spots, the characters are given the one-level performances they seem to deserve.
The best of a mediocre bunch is J. Stuart McIntyre, who plays the bumbling cuckold almost too believably. His halting ways, repetitious assertions and overall ineptitude was the one consistent enjoyment to an otherwise dreary evening. Passable were the shallow, though deservedly so, performances by Stephen Muterspaugh and Nancy Guilliams as the unsuspecting third couple. Mr. Muterspaugh was a tad over-the-top for his role, but at least it was a clear choice. Ms. Guilliams started off unbearably cliched, though improved remarkably by the end of the evening.
If only the other three members of the cast were able to pull off such a miraculous transformation, but Jane Birge, Cindy Swansinger and Larry Krask were at turns obvious and awful, adding the heretofore uncoined term "surface tension" to the dictionary of performances. Inexcusable were the constant pauses for laugh lines and mugging for even more of which these three performers were guilty. Community theatres, and TheatreWorks especially, should be above allowing such indiscretions.
Ms. Kay's direction did little to help the show. The blocking was rudimentary but sound, though the pacing was halting and jerky, the deathknell of a farce. Ms. Kay has been impressive track record with acting in farces, but this is a dubious start in directing them.
Technically, the show fared much better.Gregory Jaye's clever set design gave the perfect visual clue to the proceedings, and Kevin Cleere's lighting worked well at the right times. Also impressive were Laura Durant's sound design and Margret Emerson's always dependable costumes.
Suffice to say, I was greatly unimpressed with this TheatreWorks production, but that didn't stop the almost exclusively Sun City crowd from enjoying the evening. I have to wonder, though, if this discerning audience appreciated the actual performance, or the fact that TheatreWorks has offered another safe choice for them to enjoy. My criticism of their constant "safe" choices comes from their moving away from their mission statement, which still claims to attempt to "always ...be on the cutting edge of the new while producing the best of the past." They certainly have done a lot of the latter, but since moving to their new surroundings, they've abandoned the cutting edge for the subscription base.
Production Details:
How the Other Half Loves by Alan Ayckbourn
TheatreWorks, Peoria
815-7930
January 9th-February 1st, 1998
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