Ayckbourn Agitates Aristotle at the Agassiz--Applause, Admiration and Accolades are Appended

Theater has come a long way since the days of ancient Greece, and British playwright Alan Ayckbourn is proof. If Aristotle was willing to dismiss any play that didn't strictly observe the three unities of time, place and action, one can only imagine what he would have to say to Ayckbourn. The second scene of his play How the Other Half Loves, in which two different dinner parties that take place in two different homes on two different days are presented simultaneously, would probably be enough to make the founder of Western literary criticism roll over in his grave. Repeatedly.

Needless to say, directory Jerry Ruiz '00 and producer Tanya Melillo '01 have their work cut out for them in How the Other Half Loves. Ayckbourn's farce about marital infidelity is notoriously hard to stage effectively, and the rather conventional space provided by the Agassiz (as opposed to the more flexible Loeb Ex) doesn't make the task any easier. The result, while uneven at times, is admirable. More than that: it is remarkable.

The plot of How the Other Half Loves is almost as complicated as the staging. Bob Phillips (John Duda '99), a bored young businessman, has an adulterous affair with Fiona Foster (Sarah Matthay '99), the promiscuous wife of Bob's manager. Their unfortunate decision to use fictitious after-work jaunts with Bob's socially inept coworker William Detweiller (Kirk Hanson '99) and his wife Mary (Erica Rabbit '00) as a means of covering up their late-night meetings leads to a sequence of embarrassing dinner parties, misread signals, and confused assumptions on the part of almost everyone involved. Place all of this on a bi-level stage that shows both the Phillips and Foster homes at once and you'll begin to understand just what Aristotle would have been so upset about.

Ruiz makes the bold decision to take on Ayckbourn's play at full speed. Using the split stage like a trapeze, he has his actors bounce, trip and tumble from one level to the next in rapid succession. Props fly, clothes come off and on and off again, and lines of dialogue ricochet off the walls like bullets.

At times, Ayckbourn's zany play gets the best of Ruiz and his cast. There are moments of uncomfortable silence and even emptiness on stage, and at points the actors seem almost ready to collapse with exhaustion. The overall effect, though, approaches that of a Paganini Caprice. The physical and verbal virtuosity of the performance is captivating, and the raw energy that everyone throws into the production is contagious.

Perhaps a Paganini Caprice is the wrong analogy, though. Paganini's work was all style, full of flashy ornamentations but with little in the way of an enchanting melody to anchor his flights of dexterity. What makes Ruiz's production so successful is that for all its high-speed antics, it keeps its feet planted firmly on the ground. The sets of Glenn Reisch '99 manage to keep Ayckbourn's experiments with time and place under control. Reisch essentially designs two sets, one for each home. Remarkably, they are different enough so that the audience never loses its bearings as the action shifts from home to home and back again. At the same time they are similar enough so that the constant crossing of characters from one world to the next is acceptable.

Of course, the real strength of Ruiz's production lies in his cast. Jonah St. Newmoth leads the comic charge as the dim-witted but lovable Frank Foster, flanked at all times by Duda as the detestably arrogant Bob and Hanson as the hopelessly pathetic but well-meaning William.

Ruiz's men would border on the wrong side of caricature, though, were it not for their more grounded female counterparts. Matthay, as Fiona, is the most outrageous of this trio, though suitably so. She breathes cold-blooded temptress through every line. Kate Agresta '02 as Teresa Phillips and Rabbit as Mary Detweiller provide the backbone of the ensemble. Stressed out and overwhelmed, respectively, they provide glimpses from outside the crazy world that Ayckbourn creates, giving a somewhat more reasoned (or at least reasonable) response to the circus act that their life has become.

And a circus act it is, though a highly enjoyable one. Ayckbourn turns the troubles of married life into a high speed adventure, and Ruiz takes him up on every challenge. Aristotle might not have been pleased, but so what? The three unities can be left for classics majors to ponder.