French funfest at SCR

Tom Titus

Back in South Coast Repertory’s formative years, the mid-1960s,

period comedies from the 16th or 17th centuries often came served

with a flourish of decidedly 20th century humor, both increasing

readings on the laugh meter and reaching out with the implements

necessary to hook a modern audience.

We haven’t seen much of that sort of time-bending humor since SCR

took up residence in its fancy new digs some 25 years ago, but the

current production of John Strand’s “Lovers and Executioners” on the

company’s Julianne Argyros Stage certainly should push longtime

audience members’ nostalgia buttons.

The comedy -- based on a 1660s-era play by the French author

Montfleury -- certainly doesn’t require the extra touches (blue

jeans, a fishing pole, a bag of chips, etc.), but their presence

defines the show as one in which anything can happen and probably

will, including an onstage hanging -- but remember, this is first and

foremost a comedy.

Director Bill Rauch, leading his first SCR main stage production,

pulls out all the stops in this frenetic French farce where genders

are bent, “dead” characters recover and swords are drawn at the drop

of a chapeau. Moliere, Montfleury’s contemporary and rival, might

have panned it, but SCR audiences should thoroughly enjoy Strand’s

more modern and raucously funny version.

Once the curtain rises, “Lovers and Executioners” appears to be

anything but a comedy. A jealous businessman (David Kelly), believing

himself to be cuckolded, drops his wife (Libby West) on a small,

deserted island to presumably perish for her alleged misdeeds. West’s

character could teach those TV survivors a thing or two -- she

returns, disguised as a man, and proceeds to wreak frightening

vengeance.

West is positively luminous in the role. She scores both

comically, as she’s forced into a duel with a skilled Spanish

swordsman, and dramatically, as -- having won a judicial appointment

-- she metes out the harshest of penalties to her misguided husband.

Kelly agonizes wonderfully in the latter assignment, writhing under

the shadow of the gallows after having established his character as

large and in charge.

His intended second wife, played by Ruth Livier, is a coquettish

lass who must stave off the aforementioned Spaniard while pursuing an

assignation with West’s male-guised character. Julian Acosta takes

the conquistador’s role with a hot-blooded flourish and skewers the

French with the well-received line: “This would never happen in

Spain.”

As usual in such farcical proceedings, the servants wind up with

some of the best moments. Christopher Liam Moore, in particular,

revels in the tide-turning situation as Kelly’s ill-treated valet.

Susan Dalian is sexy and spunky as Livier’s servant, while Andrew

Borba is a staunch confidant to the transformed West, whose words of

caution generally go unheeded.

The action is played out against the backdrop of an elaborate

garden setting by Lynn K. Jeffries, including a concrete Cupid who

urinates, and stops urinating, on cue. Shigeru Yaji’s costumes are

eye-catching (especially a hot 21st century outfit donned by Kelly,

mistakenly dressing to impress). Fight choreographer Daniel R. Forcey

has found plenty of work in a series of slapstick swordplay.

“Lovers and Executioners” is a morality play disguised in wild

comic trappings, and Rauch’s production reaps gales of laughter

between its moments of deadly seriousness. Seldom have the French

been quite this funny.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.