"The Soul of Wit"
Sir Alan
Ayckbourn (Relatively Speaking, The Norman Conquests), the popular 79-year-old
British playwright/director who has written more plays than he is old, is back
in New York with his latest, A Brief
History of Women.
Provocative as the title may be, that’s not what the play is
about, unless, perhaps, you think of it as a brief history of the women in the
life of the central character, Anthony Spates (Antony Eden). In a way, this frequently amusing comedy, with its sentimental ending, is also a brief history of the house in
which the action, and Antony’s professional life, plays out.
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| Frances Marshall, Antony Eden, Louise Shuttleworth. Photo: Tony Bartholomew. |
In 1925, it’s Kirkbridge Manor; in 1945, it’s Kirkbridge
Manor, Preparatory School for Girls; in 1965, it’s Kirkbridge Arts Centre; and
in 1985, it’s Kirkbridge Manor Hotel. Over those six decades, Antony, a local
farm boy, ages from 17 (when he’s a part-time footman) to 37 (when he’s a school
teacher) to 57 (when he’s an arts administrator), to 77 (when he’s a retired hotel
manager).
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| Laurence Pears, Antony Eden, Russell Dixon. Photo: Tony Bartholomew. |
A placid fellow who exists more by reacting than taking the
initiative in his personal—especially romantic—endeavors, Tony is first seen standing
mutely by, serving tray in hand. Eyes agog, he observes the appallingly misogynistic
behavior toward his much younger wife, Lady Caroline (Frances Marshall), of the
boorish Lord Edward Kirkbridge (Russel Dixon).
Twenty years after Lady Caroline gives the bashful Tony his
first kiss, he’s seen having a hot affair with the sexually ravenous Ursula
Brock (Laura Matthews). This causes serious consternation on the part of the
fussy headmaster, Dr. Wynford Williams (Dixon), afraid of scandalizing the
school’s students.
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| Laura Matthews. Photo: Tony Bartholomew. |
Fast forward another 20 years and we’re watching a rehearsal
for a Christmas pantomime during which Gillian Dunbar (Louise Shuttleworth), wife
of the unfaithful actor/director Dennis (Dixon), shows a decided interest in
Tony (who will marry her).
Finally, the conclusion reintroduces Lady Caroline,
now a wheelchair-bound invalid of 98, brought by her solicitous great-granddaughter
Tilly (Matthews) and her husband, Jim (Laurence Pears) to Kirkwood. Question: will
this invalided old lady snap out of her infirmity and recognize the mild-mannered
manager?
During the course of the four parts, Ayckbourn delights in wittily satirizing human foibles (including the British class system), from the
pomposities of an effeminate actor/director (a surprising choice for
someone who seduces a married woman), to a Marxist actor who angrily sees
capitalistic intentions in every line, to a postwar teacher who insists a
Swedish colleague named Miller is a Nazi named Muller.
Moreover, for all the feminist vibrations suggested by its
title, A Brief History of
Women isn’t interested in polemics. It
doesn’t reveal significant differences in its women over the years, nor is
any notable argument made regarding women’s evolution. The tone is consistently
comic, sometimes bordering on farce, yet the smiles induced only now and then
erupt into loud laughter, and even more rarely into hilarity. At the same time,
Ayckbourn consistently makes what everyone says interestingly human. In fact, you’re
likely now and then to feel a tug at your heartstrings.
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| Frances Marshall, Laurence Pears, Louise Shuttleworth, (rear) Antony Eden, Laura Matthews. Photo: Tony Bartholomew. |
Eden, beautifully laid back, plays Tony throughout, graying
his hair and adding touches like a slight pot belly. Marshall, in addition to
two other roles, beautifully portrays Caroline at two widely separated ages,
while the rest of the company handles four roles each. Changing costumes and
wigs to reflect the passing years (good work from designer Kevin Jenkins, who
also did the sets), they conjure up a panoply of precisely calibrated British types.
Most flamboyantly colorful is Dixon, who makes even his momentary appearance as
a hotel bellhop memorable.
Jenkins’s set pictures two adjoining rooms—one richly wood
paneled, one more like a marble hallway—the edges of which have the look of
having been exploded so their walls are transparent; the downstage perimeter
serves as an exterior, a ballroom, and other purposes.
Ayckbourn’s clever staging, abetted by perfectly timed sound
effects, includes much pantomimed opening and shutting of imaginary doors, and having the actors move about with
clockwork precision. He even choreographs the fairly lengthy scene shifts that
alter the rooms’ appearance by setting them with clockwork precision to Simon
Slater’s original music. The stagehands, who change clothing to reflect
the respective year, got applause the night I went.
Its title is misleading about its subject and, at two and a
half hours, its length, but A Brief History
of Women by any other name would smell as sweet.
OTHER VIEWPOINTS:
59E59 Theaters/Theater A
59 E. 59th St., NYC
Through May 27