Bloomquist, Beverly J. Taylor, Lily Dorment and Maggie McGlone
Jennings. All photos by Anne Hudson.
Yes, movies and plays are
different. No surprise. Movies are, by their very nature, visually dictatorial,
by which I mean the camera determines what you do and do not look at. What with
establishing shots, close-ups, two-shots and tracking shots, what the
movie-goer sees is what the lens allows him or her to see.
Such is not the case with plays –
the eye is free to roam. The lead character may be delivering poignant lines
but the eye may choose to focus on a subordinate character sitting in a corner,
or on a piece of scenery, or down at the program curled in one’s hands. Thus,
it is the job of the play’s director to stage (or block) scenes using every
trick in the theatrical book to keep the audience’s eyes focused on what the
director wants them to be focused on. This, director Jacqueline Hubbard, does
with skill and talent in the boarding of “Calendar Girls,” which recently
opened at the Ivoryton Playhouse. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that clothes are
shed during the evening – a focus-sharpener if there ever was one.
The ladies fortify themselves before the disrobing.
The rule of thumb is that movies
are often adapted from novels or plays, not vice-versa. “Little Shop of
Horrors” is an exception to the rule, as is Tom Firth’s “Calendar Girls,” which
he adapted for the stage from a screenplay he wrote with Juliette Towhidi that
made it up onto the silver screen back in 2003 starring Helen Mirren. The play,
which is receiving its American premiere out at Ivoryton, is a somewhat faithful
re-telling of the true story of a group of British women who decide to raise
funds for the purchase of a new settee for the visitors’ room of a hospital’s
cancer ward by posing, albeit decorously, for some risqué pictures that will
adorn an annual calendar produced by their branch of the Women’s Institute, a
church-affiliated organization that seeks to develop women’s talents by
focusing on knitting, baking and attending lectures on the history of broccoli.
Beverly J. Taylor, R. Bruce Connelly,
Jacqui Hubbard and Katrina Ferguson
Jacqui Hubbard and Katrina Ferguson
The impetus for this project is the
passing of John (R. Bruce Connelly), who is married to Annie (Hubbard – yes,
she does double-duty). Annie’s friend, Chris (Beverley J. Taylor), seeking to
give her friend a new focus in life, suggests the project, and the other
members of the local WI -- Cora (Maria Silverman), a vicar’s daughter with an
attitude, Jessie (Maggie McGlone Jennings), whose wrinkles belie her
feistiness, Celia (Katrina Ferguson), a golf-widow who hides liquid refreshment
in her golf bag, and Ruth (Lily Dorment), a repressed “yes-woman” with a
wandering husband – all eventually agree to sign up and disrobe.
The first act is essentially
devoted to the gestation of the project and ends with a delightfully staged
photo shoot overseen by Lawrence (Erik Bloomquist), a local photographer. The
shoot is interrupted at the curtain by the arrival of the WI’s straight-laced
mother hen, Marie (Victoria Bundonis). As might be expected, the calendar goes
viral, and most of the second act deals with how the ladies deal with their
new-found notoriety, what with the world press knocking on their doors and the
sudden possibility that real money might be made from the project.
Erik Bloomquist jumps for joy during the photo shoot.
As the descriptions above might
suggest, Firth has given us one-note characters, so it falls to the cast members
to put flesh onto these skeletons, which they do with great success. Although
you might think the play’s draw is the creation of the calendar (Yes, -- “Local
actresses bare all” is a great come-on), it really lies in the relationships of
the six women and the badinage that suffuses their relationships. This is
established early in the first act as Chris is leading the group in Tai Chi
exercises, a discipline of which she has only passing knowledge. The ladies
create their own poses, each one a comment on an idiosyncrasy or hang-up of one
of the group’s members.
That being said, it can’t be denied
that much of the interest in “Calendar Girls” is in how the director will pull
off the photo shoot, and this Hubbard does with a lot of wit and style, with
the result of each set-up being projected onto screens set extreme stage right
and left. With each click and flash, the audience laughs and applauds. The
shots (and Hubbard’s blocking -- never was the term more appropriate) have the
feel of the playfully naughty photos that appeared in men’s magazines of the 50s,
before the let-it-all-hang-out of Playboy,
Penthouse and Hustler left little or nothing to the imagination.
If there is a problem with the show
it rests not with the actors and creative team but with the script itself, for
these women, with their decision to produce the calendar, are flying in the
face of local mores and morals. This is toyed with but never fully developed –
it’s a Hallmark set-up, and you never get the feeling that the women are really
in any danger of being ostracized.
Firth also tries to generate a bit
of conflict between Chris and Annie as the possibility of fame and fortune
become temptations that draw Chris away from the needs of her husband, Rod
(David Edwards) and the original intent of the calendar project. Once again,
it’s surface tension and easily resolved in an “I’m really a good person” scene
that might make some members of the audience want to squirm a bit (or gag).
It’s the stuff of banal sitcoms and poorly scripted Family Channel feel-good
movies – there’s just more syrup on the pancake
than one can swallow.
In all, “Calendar Girls” is a cute,
often funny play that succeeds in spite of the somewhat heavy-handed,
message-laden script. There were some minor technical glitches on opening night
that I’m sure, by now, have been ironed out (silence and an empty stage does a
lot to disengage the audience). The cast was still learning where the laugh
lines are and when to hold a bit of dialogue to allow the laughter to subside but,
by and large, the thirteen actors on stage are eager and effective, and the
idea that you can’t keep a good group of girls down is always appealing.
“Calendar Girls” runs through June
21. For tickets or more information call 860-767-7318 or go to
www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.
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