Friday
evening found me at the US premiere of the play Keeping Up Appearances,
based on characters from the British comedy television series. Those of
you who know, or know about, the series have a bit of a leg up. Those
of you who don’t, feel free to let your eyes glaze over.
The
main characters are all represented. This is not a re-creation of any
specific portion of the series, but a true stand-alone piece. Hyacinth
Bucket (“It’s bouquet!”) starts out quarreling with her neighbor Emmett,
who is preparing to rehearse a play he’s directing, thus preventing
Hyacinth from displaying her painting (oil on silk—she could never use
anything so coarse as canvas!) as part of the art display that is
supposed to be set up in the church hall. An interesting metaprime
moment here is that the performance I saw was staged in a church hall.
Hyacinth insists that she’s committed to the painting group and could
not possibly devote any time to Emmett’s play. That is, until she hears
that the role of Lady Malverne still needs to be cast. Well, she
graciously wheedles her way into the production.
What
she does not do, however, is read the script and see that Lady Malverne
gets murdered early on in the first act, and that she must also play a
lowly cook in the second act. She is not amused!
Along
the way, we find out that her sister Daisy is in the cast (as a
duchess, no less!), as are her sister Rose and Daisy’s husband Onslow.
There is a recently divorced gentleman, Edward “Milly” Milson, for Rose
to ply her wily charms upon, Richard is on hand to run various errands for
Hyacinth, and the Vicar is on hand (in a non-speaking role) to turn
tail every time he sees the “Bucket woman.” Even Daddy makes an
appearance, after giving sister Violet the slip (she’s the one with the
Mercedes, swimming pool, and room for a pony). She is only referenced in
a couple of Hyacinth’s set pieces—phone monologues. Seeing that the
location is not Hyacinth’s home, the phone monologues take place on her
clunky cell phone that gets trillingly answered, “You have reached the
exclusive private mobile phone of Hyacinth Bou-quet. She herself is
speaking!” Hyacinth also has the requisite phone monologue with her son
Sheridan.
Well,
you get the drift. There were lots of laughs in this Theatre Fellowship
of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church production, with its mix of two
Actors’ Equity members, several variously trained actors in the
equivalent of a very good community theater performance, and a handful
of church members. Wisely, none of the actors tried to imitate or
impersonate the cast members of the TV series. There was a mix (and a
mix of success) of British accents. The entire cast performed well, with
special kudos going to Isabella Knight as Hyacinth, who provided laughs
as Hyacinth, Lady Malverne, and the lowly cook. I had a very pleasant
evening in the theater.
On
Saturday afternoon, I attended a program of silent films with live
piano accompaniment. This was the second in a series featuring the Hal
Roach Studios, and all seven of the shorts featured Harold Lloyd in
films ranging from 1915 (he had only gotten his start in the movies in
1914 as an extra) through to 1920. It ably demonstrated his growth as a
comedian and Roach’s growth as a director and producer, but it was a
little heavy handed and a little too much same old, same old for my
taste. While I enjoy these silents, I’m not a real diehard aficionado,
and this seemed more like a mini movie class as opposed to just an
afternoon of fun. The 1915 offering, Peculiar Patient Pranks, and the
1917 offering, When Clubs Are Trumps, were both single-reel offerings
and both had fairly heavy condition issues. Maybe one of them could have
been dropped?
The
City Slicker (1918) was more enjoyable for me, and Get Out and Get
Under (1920) was the most sophisticated of the seven. Even though I’m
pretty sure I’ve seen it before, it still packed a lot of laughs. As
always, Ben Model’s mostly improvised scores were quite impressive, as
was his stamina, and Steve Massa’s program notes were packed with
information, though he tended to cover a lot of it in his introduction
to the first two films. Hey, I read program notes—I don’t need them
essentially read to me. But that’s just my minor quibble, and I’ll most
likely attend the third in this series later in the spring. More on
Sunday in the next post.
ConcertMeister
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