“A smart choice to open the Playhouse’s season. The primed cast delivers a successful, much-needed ‘welcome back-to-summer’ farce. Funny and witty.”
Set in 1969 and in two different homes, playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s “How the Other Half Loves” is a ‘welcome-to-summer’ much-needed farce commenting on the state of marriage and infidelity. This social institution and its possible ramifications were just two examples placed under a microscope and examined during the many upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Director Jeremy Webb meticulously maintains the fast-paced nature required for the production to move quickly, as the audience sees two separate actions appear simultaneously.
Performing a farce live is a challenge. Not only must the comedy and wit be timed efficiently, but the actors must also treat these outlandish events as genuine and believable in the moment.
That’s not easy to do.
This Thousand Islands Playhouse production handles the comic and the farce nicely.
Events happen quickly. Audiences will need to pay close attention to the sometimes bizarre plot, which unfolds through the intertwined stories of the three couples.
The Fosters (David Christoffel and Geneviève Steele) are a well-to-do married older couple. They’re polite with each other, but there’s no spark in their relationship anymore. Fiona is having a secret affair with Bob Phillips (Aaron Reid Ryder), one of Frank’s employees. Bob’s relationship with his wife, Terry (Kait Post), is also on the rocks. Frank and Terry have an unseen offstage young child who has become part of their relationship breakdown. Terry feels abandoned by Bob. She also appears to be receiving phone calls from someone who does not respond (it’s Fiona who makes the calls as she wants to speak with Bob). When Frank and Terry ask where Fiona and Bob have been, they lie to their spouses and say they have been out comforting the third couple, William and Mary Featherstone (Matthew Gorman, Sophie Wilcott), who believe each is having an affair on the other.
Got all that sorted out? There’s more.
The Fosters and the Phillips give a dinner party on successive evenings and have invited the Featherstones. What gloriously ensues comedically is played out on the Springer stage with meticulously timed lightning speed, not only by the actors but also through Leigh Ann Vardy’s focused lighting and Maddie Bautista’s terrific sound design. Vardy and Bautista’s collaboration remains tightly solid as the action goes back and forth between the present and the past dinner party. Bautista has selected some excellent songs from the 60s. I started humming along, as did several people around me.
Vickie Marston magically creates a fantastic visual look that fully utilizes the Springer stage. Two-component tropes usually found in any British face – telephones (not mobiles or cellular) and doors – are fully used to theatrical advantage. Cellphones and mobiles would be out of place. There are two different back walls (wood panelling and wallpaper) to indicate the setting is in two homes. The arranged set pieces allow the actors to move freely, which becomes particularly important when the past and present merge together. There is a lot of carefully choreographed, timed movement from all six actors. Kaelen MacDonald has selected costumes reminiscent of the late 1960s, featuring bright pastels and hints of the bell-bottom look.
It all works.
Under Jeremy Webb’s steady and controlled direction, Ayckbourn’s script does not come across as dated at all. The only quibble I had about the script: Fiona and Bob’s affair did not come to light as much as I thought it would have by the end of the first act. The script seems to skirt around it, and I was left puzzled, wondering where that focus all went.
Rest assured, it all winds up packaged and dealt with by the play’s conclusion.
The six ensemble players have developed wonderfully idiosyncratic characteristics that made me smile and laugh out loud on several occasions. Their staged movements around the table, while not bumping into or acknowledging each other, remain a highlight of the production.
David Christoffel is an enjoyable, stuffy, and pompous Frank Foster. His discussions with his wife, Fiona, are long ago reminders of the backward thinking the man believes his wife will always follow what he says. Geneviève Steele’s Fiona genuinely matches Frank’s stuffiness with palpable humour. Her bits on the phone where she says nothing when Terry (Kait Post) picks it up to answer always set a smile on my face. The frazzled look on Post’s face (because she’s dealing with her son’s fussiness) and Steel’s shocked expression are priceless.
Aaron Reid Ryder’s Bob Phillips effectively shows the twist of the ‘cheating/cuckolded’ husband with the ‘doofus lover’ who must do what the other lover always wants. Kait Post effectively reveals that, as a wife and mother, her constant back-and-forth pull is wearing thin on her nerves. Her Terry balances a fussy, unseen child with an often-absent husband who is unable to help with household chores and care for the baby.
There’s an unsuspecting sweetness in Sophie Wilcott’s performance as a doe-like, wide-eyed Mary Featherstone. Wilcott channels an inner Sandy Dennis in her performance. Matthew Gorman’s William Featherstone duly defends himself regarding untrue allegations involving himself and his wife, Mary.
In his Director’s Note, Jeremy Webb writes about how the company planned to give audiences a silly and fun night at the theatre. Ayckbourn duly skewers the institution of marriage broadly but wants to ensure it still holds an important place. His witty script, Webb’s solid direction, and a cast who’s having a good time sharing the story is the perfect cap for an afternoon or evening of entertainment.
This production succeeds because we all need to laugh right now, given the state of what’s going on south of us.
See ‘How the Other Half Loves.’
Running time: approximately two hours with one intermission.
‘How the Other Half Loves’ runs until June 22 at the Springer Theatre, 185 South Street, Gananoque. For tickets: boxoffice@1000islandsplayhouse.com or call (613) 382-7020.
THOUSAND ISLANDS PLAYHOUSE presents
“How the Other Half Loves” by Sir Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Jeremy Webb. (Assistant Director: Cam Sedgwick)
Set Designer: Vickie Marston
Costume Designer: Kaelen MacDonald
Lighting Designer: Leigh Ann Vardy
Sound Designer: Maddie Bautista
Stage Manager: Jenn Hewitt (Assistant Stage Manager: Rebecca Miller)
Performers: David Christoffel, Geneviève Steele, Aaron Reid Ryder, Kait Post, Matthew Gorman, Sophie Wilcott
(Pictured l-r: David Christoffel, Sophie Wilcott, Matthew Gorman, Genevieve Steel, Kait Post. Credit: Paddle Grant Photo and James Paddle-Grant)
