Reviewed by Richard Lane
October 2012
Galleon Players’ final offering for this year is a deft, very funny but quite fatuous play.(and aren’t all farces fatuous?) But director John Graham knows farce and how they should be played. To quote Mr Graham in part”… the plot is about adultery, mistaken identity, romance, jealousy, confusion and brilliant one- liners.” His production embodies all of these elements in spades.
Graham has melded his excellent cast into a tight ensemble and the pace is a cracker from the get-go. This gives the audience no time to realise how crazy the plot really is.
The set, a renovated barn somewhere near paris, is tastefully decorated and spacious enough to allow for all the hi-jinx that ensue through out the evening.
As the conniving husband Bernard, looking for a weekend of lust while his wife is supposedly visiting her mother, Andrew Clark is uproariously non-plussed by the events of the evening. Clark’s comic timing is a feature.
His wife Jacqueline, is played by experienced Nicole Rutty who is in complete command of her role despite the recent development of some slightly bothersome mannerisms.
Mason Willis made a dashing paramour for Jacqueline and his “double -talk” speech in Act 2 is a gem which brought the house down.
Lara Adamuszek as Suzette the cook(or was it the mistress or maybe the niece) was a huge hit with the audience, showing a fine sense of comic action. Her “undressing” scene in Act2 was a clever bit of stage business.
Olivia Eblen was an attractive “Susanne” but perhaps did not make the most of her opportunities.
Suzette’s husband George, Stephen Small, played his cameo role with marvellously comic pretend aggression and the audience could be forgiven for thinking they may have been seeing Shane Jacobsen .
Another excellent production for Galleon Theatre Group.
