THEATRE REVIEW: "Waiting in the Wings" @ The Fontbonne Black Box

BY: ANDREA BRAUN, THEATRE ARTS CORRESPONDENT

This is a good month to see lesser known works by well known playwrights: The Albee plays (Everything in the Garden closed last weekend at Stray Dog; The Lady from Dubuque is currently running at Muddy Waters) and now Act Inc’s summer repertory season includes Heroes (trans. By Tom Stoppard) and Waiting in the Wings by Noel Coward, which opened last night. "Wings" is an old-fashioned three-act butt numb-er, but it has good performances, some of Coward’s trademark sparkling dialogue, and an interesting setting to recommend it.

Generally I don’t mention the director first, but Steve Callahan has done masterful work here. He has a small space (the Fontbonne Black Box) and a quite large cast, many of whom are often on stage at the same time. The show is precisely blocked and most of the characters are well-defined. Now that Callahan has seen the show with a near-capacity audience, however, he needs to tell many of the actors to turn up the volume and bite off the words. Sometimes articulation is a problem, especially when someone’s back is to the audience.

The story is set in an old actor’s "charity home" somewhere in the English countryside. All the residents are women and each has a story to tell. Believe me, you will be there long enough to hear them all, though some receive much more attention than others. It is gratifying to see women "of a certain age" get good parts, and all the residents are played at least competently, and some, memorably. To our contemporary eyes (the play is set in 1958) some of these women look far too young to be in a nursing home, but that is sufficiently explained by the fact that they don’t have enough money to live anywhere else and their careers are over.

As the play opens, one of these down at heels ladies arrives to take up residence, one Lotta Bainbridge (Liz Hopefl), dropped off by her doting daughter (Jane Abling) who is engaged but willing not to marry to stay with her mum. She also has a son in Canada whom she has not seen in 33 years (John Reidy). Also in residence is Lotta’s once-friend, now longtime enemy, May Davenport (Eleanor Mullin). Watching them interact is one of the chief pleasures of the play. Mullin is very good; Hopefl also plays well, but Lotta has a lot of stage time and becomes rather central to the story as a whole. There is a lack of variety in Hopefl’s vocal inflections and movements that make us tend to look at those around her when we should be focused on her.

Of course, since these are old women and this is Noel Coward (very late in his life, as well) there are stereotypes: Cora Clarke (Cindy Duggan) the hoofer just barely past her prime and none too happy about it; Bonita Belgrave (Jan Meyer) a nice lady who doesn’t cause trouble but doesn’t do much of anything else either; Estelle Craven (Diane Peterson); and Maudie Melrose (Sally Eaton) a spunky little firecracker. Majorie Williamson has a cameo as Topsy Baskerville.

The standouts here are Almina Clare (Suzanne Greenwald) whose stage business at least threatens to steal every scene she’s in and Deirdre O’Malley (Lynn Rathbone) a bitter old Irish woman who says she fears nothing but thinks she’s unpopular "because I’m old and miserable. . . and a foreigner." Rathbone could give lessons to the rest of the cast on how to be heard clearly from anywhere in the theatre. Also her accent is spot on and consistent, which is not true of all. Finally, Sarita Myrtle (Dorothy Farmer Davis) provides an equal dose of humor and pathos as she lives in her glorious past and is fascinated with fire in her dismal present.

There is a rather thin plot involving a solarium, a story in the newspaper, a reunion with a child, and the whole concept of fleeting fame and fortune. A pointless subplot involves the unseen 95-year-old Martha, apparently a theatrical legend, who is visited faithfully by a gentleman caller, Osgood Meeker, played by the dapper Bruce Collins.

Some younger people are involved in the proceedings: Charlie Heuvelman has a walk-on part as a doctor, but Perry Lascoe (Tim Grumich) as the popular secretary to the administrator, Miss Archie (the always delightful Teresa Doggett) charmingly interacts with the residents, and one of them steps up for him when he needs it. Tamara Kenny as Zelda Fenwick is slick as a reporter determined to do a story on the home and its residents. Susanna Wirthlin acquits herself well as Doreen, the long-suffering maid.

Michael Sullivan’s evocative lights illuminate a pretty amazing set by Tim Poertner. Again, the space has been made to look much larger than it is, and the parlor is comfortable and cozy with room for a fireplace, piano, card table and places for everyone to sit. I’m not sure how he pulled that off. Michele Siler’s numerous costumes are appropriate, and I especially enjoyed the ladies’ Christmas finery. Chuck Lavazzi’s sound design sets the mood and provides bridges during the two intermissions with music by Noel Coward. All in all, this is show is technically very well done.

Act Inc’s stated mission is to revive old plays, many of which are little known, and this they have done. But sometimes a work isn’t performed often because it just isn’t all that interesting or relevant. For me, that’s the bottom line on Waiting in the Wings. Everything is right about the production but the play itself, and that is a major weakness because the play is, as they say, the thing.