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The
Temptation: (l-r) Gill and Atkinson in The Guardsman.
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The
Charmer
By
James Yeara
The
Guardsman
By
Ferenc Molnar, translated by Grace I. Colbron and Hans Bartsch,
directed by John Rando
Berkshire Theatre Festival, Main Stage, through July 31
‘The
Actress” (Jayne Atkinson) and “The Actor” (Michel Gill) are
arguing when the curtain opens for director John Rando’s briskly
paced production of this seldom seen 1910 comic gem by Hungarian
playwright Ferenc Molnar. That the curtain closes on almost
an identical moment underscores how tight and grandly affected
The Guardsman is. This is a comedy in a grand style,
an exercise in manners, gestures, accents, and affection that
elicits frequent laughter from the audience, but also hints
at the theme weaving more gently through the genial farce:
“Is there anything you can’t believe, if necessary?” as “The
Critic” (Richard Easton) asks near the play’s end.
Set in the stylish Viennese apartment of the “The Actress
and The Actor” and the equally stylish “Box Four, First Tier,
Vienna Opera House” (the detailed and opulent scenic design
is by Alexander Dodge with equally opulent and detailed costumes
by David Murin), The Guardsman follows the six-month-old
marriage of The Actress and The Actor at its moment of crisis.
He frets over airy trifles he fears mean she no longer loves
him. To test her fidelity, he has created temptation in “The
Guardsman,” a Russian prince come to make love to The Actress,
he confesses to The Critic. Testing fidelity is the stuff
movies as recently as Chloe pivot on, and Molnar’s play is
an excuse for grand acting that the cast (including Stephen
DeRosa in dual roles as A Creditor in Acts I and III and usher
in Act II and Tara Franklin as the gamine maid Liesel fawning
over The Actor, and “Mama” a tart Mary Louise Wilson) embraces
with ardor.
Real-life husband and wife Gill and Atkinson are obviously
enjoying themselves as much as the audience enjoys their grand
antics; they seems to wink with every grand gesture and, when
The Actor becomes The Guardsman to woo his wife, the real
fun in the Vienna Opera House box begins. “I was happy as
a husband whose wife is true,” The Actor states, but then
beams when he exclaims, “I was happy as An Actor who was true
to his Part.”
What’s clear in The Guardsman is that The Part is greater
than the sum of the roles.
With its slamming doors, listening at keyholes, shifting disguises—there’s
a nifty bit of business in the third act when The Actress,
reclining on the divan turned away from her husband, engages
him on the business matters of another leading actor while
The Actor changes into The Guardsman behind her—The Guardsman
is an engaging slip of a farce, an antic charmer that is as
fun for the cast as it is for the audience.
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