Laughter at last!

After a season that has been filled with grim reality, Barrington Stage has made us laugh. And laugh and laugh! Tonight we saw See how they Run by Philip King, a British playwright. It is a complicated, hilarious farce in the style of Georges Feydeau who wrote for the Paris stage during the Belle Époque. His plays often involved the world of the Paris demi-monde complete with great wit, complicated plots and what a critic called 'Jack-in-the-box' construction. There were always a number of people running about the stage at great speeds, mis-understandings, and character mix-ups.

Tonight's play had all of the above. Cary Donalson played the part of The Reverend Lionel Toop, a vicar in a small town church. Lisa McCormick played his wife, Penelope. He the befuddled husband; she an ex-actress upon whom the townsfolk tended to frown.





Michael Brusasco played Corporal Clive Winton, an actor who had performed Noël Coward's Private Lives with her many times before her marriage. He shows up unexpectedly while her husband is off with the village choir.

Dina Thomas was the maid, Ida, who is befuddled most of the time by the rapid-fire happenings.

Michele Tauber was the village gossip who also arrives un-wantedly.

Keith Jochim was The Bishop of Lax, Penelope's uncle, who arrives a day early.

Jim Schubin the escaped German prisoner who attempts to take over the household. (The play is set in wartime England; 1942).

Jeff Brooks was The Reverend Arthur Humphrey, who has arrived to fill the pulpit for Lionel on Sunday morning.

Don Lee Sparks is Sergeant Towers who is called to help capture the escaped German and return him to the prisoner camp.

So you have two clerics, a bishop, and then Clive who dresses in one of Lionel's clerics so he and Penelope can attend a play which he is not supposed to do while in uniform. The German also puts on some of Lionel's clerics to disguise himself, giving us a total of five apparent clergymen on stage at any given time. Total befuddlement!

Trying to persuade the Bishop that all is well, Penelope, not wanting her uncle to think she is mis-behaving while her husband is away, first tries to pretend that Clive is her husband, and then, threatened by a revolver the German is holding, is forced to say that he is her husband so that he will not shoot her.

The plot gets wilder and wilder with people being pushed into the closet, running in and out of doors, falling on the floor, and so on.

This wonderful cast kept the action going at breakneck speed, adding to the general confusion. They and the director, Jeff Steitzer, are to be complimented for an evening of exhausting gaity!