Stoppard’s Real Inspector Hound
Shakespeare & Company Launches Shoulder Season
By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 25, 2010
The Real Inspector Hound
By Tom Stoppard
Directed by Jonathan Croy
Set Design by Patrick Brennan; Costumes, Govane Lohbauer; Lighting, Stephen Ball; Sound Michael Pfeiffer; Costume Design Assistant, Mary Redinger; Stage Manager, Nicholas Bussett; Production supported by George and Roberta Berry.
Cast: Birdboot (Josh Aaaron McCabe, Moon (Enrico Spada), Radio Announcer (Kip Salmonson), Mrs. Drudge (Meg O’Connor), Simon Gascoyne (David Joseph), Lady Cynthia Muldoon (Dana Harrison), Felicity Cunningham (Alexandra Lincoln), Major Mangus Muldoon (Scott Renzoni), Inspector Hound (Wolfe Coleman), Higgs (Max Bochs).
Shakespeare & Company
Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre
Lenox, Mass.
September 18 to November 7, 2010
Fall foliage marks the beginning of an ever more vibrant shoulder season in the Berkshires. Particularly for loyal year round residents there is a engaged audience for theater long after Tanglewood is shuttered for the winter.
Last night, Shakespeare & Company got the festivities started hysterically with a silly but hilarious farce by Tom Stoppard The Real Inspector Hound.
Part of the fun and fascination of following the performances of a company, particularly the multi tasking S&Co., is to see performers in different settings. On stage in Lenox we come to share in the marvel and mystery that anything is possible. An actor who might be dark and somber in a drama is just over the top and absurd in a comedy.
For this production of Hound the director, Johnathan Croy, has let a brilliant cast off the leash. It has become a kind of S&Co. tradition that this time spot in the program is devoted to staging something absolutely ridiculous. The heavy duty stuff like Richard III, which set all records for the company, is staged in the summer. After all the hard work, the best season ever in terms of tickets sales, well, girls just want to have fun. Boys too.
It’s just hard to take comedy, particularly farce, seriously. The actors in this production are having so much fun that it is difficult to imagine any effort involved. Starting with the Greeks it is fair to say that the gravitas of Sophocles earned more respect from Aristotle than the silly stuff of Aristophanes.
While here the players had the convoluted, spoofy plot, and witty text of Stoppard to work with the best stuff is off the page. The minor character of the blind maid, Mrs. Drudge, performed by Meg O’Connor, absolutely steals ever scene she is in. Her masterpiece moment comes when she stumbles about serving tea. Cups and saucers fly as the actors deftly catch the lumps of sugar which she slings about. Just delicious.
This clever and enormously popular play, is being performed just about everywhere at the moment, coming to a high school gym near you. What theatre people appear to have most in common is how much they need but revile critics. Moi, for example.
During interviews with actors I have felt their resentment and disdain. Critics, it seems, are individuals who know nothing, envy actors, but get to make and break careers. The majority of critics are qualified to do their jobs just because they choose to and have an editor who endorses their ignorance and conceit. Knowledge of the medium is not necessarily an asset for a scribe. A bitchy sense of humor and gift for pithy pullout quotes goes a lot further.
At least that’s how Stoppard presents us. In Hound there are two specimens of the genre, Birdboot, played by Josh Aaron McCabe, and his colleague Moon, performed by Enrico Spada. They are wonderfully spot on. Particularly in the catty, dishy commentary and oneupmanship as they chit chat during the performance of a murder mystery they are covering. Moon compliments his colleague on a pullout quote blazing in neon on a West End Marquee. The dream of every critic. Birdboot is in total denial that he is boffing the ingénue. In exchange for favors he proclaims that her brilliance will go far. Moon outs him on philandering. Birdfoot does indeed protest too much his utter loyalty to the unseen and rather dull Myrtle.
The insecurities of Moon are so insightful to encounter. It seems he is the second string critic. Moon is in the theatre that night because Higgs has disappeared. There is, by the way, a third string writer. Birdboot inquires if he has any talent. Nobody knows is the answer because so far he hasn’t gotten an opportunity. It is entirely possible that the stiff stashed under the couch may be Higgs. Has Moon offed the number one Higgs to move up the ladder?
During the reception after the performance Spada, who loved his role, told me “Charles, I modeled my critic after you.” My goodness. Be still dear heart.
Actually, Enrico was perceptive. Back in the day, when I was the first string pop music critic for the Herald Traveler, I was also the third string theater critic. It was how I got to cover Athol Fugard which did not appear to interest my superiors. I was also the third string movie critic which meant seeing some real dogs. So yes, Enrico, I feel your pain.
Yes, as a critic, how to write about such a silly play? A colleague suggested quoting the critics. Stoppard gives them some terrific lines. The reviews by his two critics are far more witty and scathing than what I could ever come up with. What a put down. But that’s the strategy of my colleague so I will let that rest.
As John Cage told me given the choice he would rather laugh than cry. But joy is a more ephemeral and evasive emotion than grief and sorrow. Tragedy lingers and stays with us long after leaving the theatre while comedy, like the bubbles of champagne, are just poof. They make us merry and giggling for the moment. But too often fall flat by morning.
So how to convey the hilarity last night and all that smart, billiantly executed, precise, slapstick physical comedy? Indeed the actors were flinging themselves about the stage. They must be black and blue this morning.
All of the cast were just wonderful. The entrances of the much wronged Felicity (Alexandra Lincoln) were just terrific. The more so when, during the second act, there is a bit of musical chairs and the scenes are replayed with different characters in the same situations. It is much funnier the second time round as we are in on the gag.
There is something about the grieving widow Lady Cynthia Muldoon (Dana Harrison). She is horny enough to swap spit and roll and tumble but also grieving for a husband who has just disappeared. Or has he. Won’t give it away.
Scott Renzoni had a terrific Scottish accent as the wheel chair bound mischief maker Major Magnus Muldoon. David Joseph milked the role of Simon Gascoyne the Mysterious Stranger. My absolute favorite character was the stiff under the bed who played the role absolutely perfectly. Never blew a line or botched a scene.
For once, a rarity indeed at the bare pipe S&Co. there was a terrific set. It created the drawing room ambiance of a Queen Anne manse somewhere near the cliffs. The fog rolling in has cut off the scene of the crime from the outside world. In this design by Partick Brennan even the furniture and props are played for laughs. The costumes by Govan Lohbauer nicely enhance the comedy.
While all of the individual actors had brilliant comedic moments in this production the whole was more than the sum of its parts. In this ensemble performance we see S&Co. at its ridiculous best.
The best news is that there is more to come.
On October 9, S&Co. will celebrate its gala with Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. The benefit evening spoofs Tony Simotes, the current artistic director, and Tina Packer, the founder of the company. Everyone is getting into the act during an evening which includes dinner and dancing.
The 22nd Annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare will showcase As You Like It from November 18 to 21. For the Holidays there will be the Santaland Diaries from December 2 to 30. Yo, ho, ho. Then once again, in the dead of winter, on frosty nights we will trek to Lenox for The Mystery of Irma Vep, from February 4 to March 27.
Let the games begin. Fill the nights with merry feasting and joy. Anon.