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| Carson Elrod, Sarah Manton and Scott Drummond. All photos by Carol Rosegg |
Anyone familiar with theater knows
that staging a farce normally requires a lot of doors, which are frequently
slammed as characters rush about chasing each other. In the case of Alan
Ayckbourn’s “Bedroom Farce,” which recently opened at the Westport Country
Playhouse under the capable direction of John Tillinger, there are the
requisite doors, though they are seldom slammed. They do, however, provide
entrance into three bedrooms where, obviously, the beds dominate, and it is
these beds and the people who sleep in them, or rather, attempt to sleep in
them, that Ayckbourn has chosen to focus on in his slowly developing though
ultimately quite humorous analysis of what we do when the shades are drawn. It’s
not what you think (but you probably already know that).
Stage right offers us the bedroom
of Delia (Cecilia Hart) and Ernest (the ever reliable Paxton Whitehead), a
couple of a certain age who worry about a damp spot in the guest room ceiling
and believe it’s a treat to have sardines and toast in bed. This couple, in
their younger years, somehow managed to bring forth a son named Trevor (Carson
Elrod), a borderline sociopath who is currently married to the somewhat
fragile, flighty Susannah (Sarah Manton).
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| Cecilia Hart, Sarah Manton and Paxton Whitehead |
Stage Center we have the bedroom of
Kate (Claire Karpen) and Malcolm (Scott Desmond), a young couple who have
decided to throw a house warming party for themselves to which, reluctantly,
Trevor and Susannah have been invited, for the couple apparently are to parties
what Typhoid Mary was to New York.
Finally, stage left offers us the
bedroom of Nick (Matthew Greer) and Jan (Nicole Lowrance), who have also been
invited to the party but, alas, Nick can’t attend – he’s bedridden with a bad
back (Ayckbourn seems to subscribe to the idea that men, when confronted with
illness or pain, turn into sniveling babies). Jan, however, is determined to
attend the party, knowing that her former lover, Trevor, will be there with his
psychotic wife.
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| Claire Karpen and Carson Elrod |
Thus the stage, handsomely
decorated by scenic designer Marjorie Bradley Kellogg, is set for a mix and
match of emotions all fueled by Trevor and Susannah’s rather tempestuous
marriage. The two are obliviously intrusive – they invade the three bedrooms
like locust or cockroaches, creating havoc wherever they appear.
However, the havoc takes a bit of
time to develop, so the first act, although punctuated by some witty dialogue, arch
commentary on the more mundane aspects of married bliss, and a great
husband-wife duke-out performed by Manton and Elrod, seems to be one long
set-up for the second act. As the action, such as it is, jumps from bedroom to
bedroom, the transitions accentuated by John Demous’s lighting design, we are
treated to extended character development and a slow build – you just know all
hell is going to break loose, you’d just like it to happen a bit sooner.
Pent up expectation is fulfilled in
the delightful second act, which consists of a series of bedroom hopping scenes
complete with confusing phone calls (here Whitehead is in his glory),
collapsing furniture, and enough slapstick to satisfy those who remember “Room
Service” and “Hellzapoppin.”
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| Carson Elrod, Nicole Lawrence, Sarah Manton and Claire Karpen |
It is also in the second act that
the cast’s comic skills come to the fore: Hart and Manton have a wonderfully
awkward conversation about sex as Whitehead attempts to deal with having been
evicted from his bed; Greer finally gets to do more than moan as he attempts to
deal with the invasion of his character’s bedroom; and Elrod reveals his inner
Stan Laurel.
Is the controlled insanity of the
second act worth the wait? Absolutely. It’s comic catharsis.
“Bedroom Farce” runs through
September 13. For tickets or more information call 203-227-4177 or go to
www.westportplayhouse.org.
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