Old Wine in New Bottles
Bedroom Farce
TheaterMania
Peter Filichia
October 20, 2008
Of course, The Actors Company Theatre on Theatre Row has been doing vintage plays for 15 years now. They?re now doing Alan Ayckbourn?s Bedroom Farce, a masterful study in a seldom-if-ever examined facet of human behavior: self-absorption. Elderly Delia tells her husband Ernest that she isn?t threatened at losing their reservation at the restaurant because ?We?re regulars. We go every year.? Cynthia Harris, one of TACT?s artistic directors, is delicious in the part that won Joan Hickson a Tony, and Larry Keith can be an extraordinarily convincing Brit, in the role that also won Michael Gough a Tony.
In another bedroom is Nick (the sharp Scott Schafer), flat on his back in pain, and for whom Ayckbourn finds the perfect expression for an egocentric: ?Why me?? soon to be followed by What about me?? Meanwhile, Trevor (the deliriously funny Mark Alhadeff) and Susanna (Eve Bianco, who plays pathetic very well), a couple in trouble, go to Malcolm and Kate?s party and don?t feel nearly as bad as they should when their fights clear the room. Trevor is so lost in his romantic problems, he doesn?t notice that Malcolm (the ruggedly clueless Sean Doherty) and Kate (the fetching Ashley West) desperately want him to leave. He feels free to visit Nick and Jan (the excellent Margaret Nichols), even though Trevor has been cavorting with her ? at one in the morning, no less. That?s exactly when Susanna feels free to drop in on Ernest and Delia, her in-laws, whom she?s fully confident will welcome her and be thrilled to help.
The TACT production is better than the one I remembered from Broadway in 1979 ? which I first saw with the original British cast, and with the Americans whom Equity demanded take over. I won?t say it would have run longer if this current cast had been with it from the beginning, for we all know better than that: An Ayckbourn play, which usually comes over a season or two after a smash London success, traditionally gets great reviews here and little public interest. Still, it works better at TACT because the set is so interesting: The three bedrooms are beautifully intertwined; on Broadway, they just sat next to each other like lumps. Tune in www.tactnyc.org