Reviewed by James Karas
**** (out of five)
The Shaw Festival’s
Production of His Girl Friday is so full of energy and laughter that the
audience needs to catch its breath at the end of the performance. Director Jim Mezon
does make a few unfortunate gaffes but the end result is still a riotous
comedy.
His Girl Friday is an adaptation of The Front
Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which premiered in 1928. The protagonists in the play were two men, a reporter
and an editor but Columbia Pictures changed them to a man and a women for a
movie version in 1940.
John Guare adopted
the play for the stage and kept the protagonists as a man and a woman who are
divorced.
His Girl Friday takes place in the
press room of the criminal courts building of Chicago. It is August 1939 and an
anarchist who killed a policeman is scheduled to be hanged in the morning. The
press room is filled with an array of colourful reporters. The central story is
that of reporter Hildy Johnson (Nicole Underhay) and her former boss and
husband, the editor Walter Burns (Benedict Campbell).
One source of comedy
is the reporters who are sparring for a story about Earl Holub (Andrew Bunker)
the poor anarchist who is about to be executed. The rude and crude newspapermen
have scant regard for or even interest in the truth – they just want a story
that will sell papers. Director Jim Mezon orchestrates the reporters and the
other characters in exemplary ensemble playing that provides a great deal of
energy and laughter.
The main plotline is
the relationship of Burns and Hildy. She has fallen in love with Bruce (Kevin
Bundy) a hapless insurance salesman and Burns wants her back as his wife and as
a reporter to cover the execution and expose the corruption of Chicago politicians.
Underhay and Campbell
are a marvelously matched set for the verbal and physical comedy that the play
provides. Both deliver their lines with speed, perfect timing and bravado.
Bundy as the insurance man who is henpecked by his mother is a terrific foil
for the two “lovers” as is his imperious mother played by Wendy Thatcher. Both
of them are hilarious.
There are individually
distinguished performances as well as the ensemble acting. Peter Krantz is
hilarious as the corrupt sheriff as is Thom Marriott as the bullying and
totally corrupt Mayor.
Lorne Kennedy has the
small role of Pincus, the messenger but he turns it into a marvelous
laugh-getter. Nothing is wasted in this production.
I think Andrew Bunker
was miscast as Holub. He was not convincing as the anarchist who shot a cop. We
could have done without characters speaking in unison at times. It went from
unnecessary to annoying.
Aside from that it
was an evening filled with laughter.
______
His Girl Friday adapted by John Guare from The Front Page by Ben
Hecht and Charles MacArthur and the Columbia Pictures film His Girl Friday runs from June 10 until October 5, 2012 at the Festival
Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment