Bedroom Farce Review
Bedroom Farce
WBAI
David Rothenberg
October 21, 2008
Alan Ayckbourn's BEDROOM FARCE is benefiting from a droll, skillfully acted production, presented by The Actors Company Theatre at the Beckett Theatre an 42nd St.
Ayckbourn is one of England's most prolific and successful playwrights, but has not had the same success on this side of the Atlantic. After seeing BEDROOM FARCE you might wonder why we have gone astray.
BEDROOM FARCE is comedic romp, bubbling with merriment and mischief and in this production, a delight to the eye and d the ear. Four married couples are squeezed into three bedrooms, cleverly designed by Robin Vest. The four couples, all connected, one way or another, reveal their secrets and peccadilloes in the bedrooms we are permitted to observe. You gain an insight and more than a few chuckles as their relationships are exposed.
It was difficult for me to determine who was a having a better time, the eight actors or the audience, which burst with guffaws of recognition throughout.
Director Jenn Thompson has done a wonderful job in realizing Ayckbourn's sly humor. The actor?s restrain served the play beautifully. Cynthia Harris and Larry Keith, the older couple of the lot are brilliant with their understated British asides. They are a wonderful contrast to the younger performers, all involved in marriages that are straining in various degrees. It should not be surprising that a troupe called The Actors Company Theatre has a cast of such skilled artists. In addition to the aforementioned Cynthia Harris and Larry Keith, the stunning Margaret Nichols should be recognized, but since the entire cast, Scott Schafer, Sean Dougherty, Ashley West, Mark Alhadeff and Eve Bianco, make this a splendid ensemble, accolades should be afforded one and all.
BEDROOM FARCE is sublime.