A deep breath of comic spring at NTAC

Tom Titus

There is no better example of what an imaginative director and a

supremely talented cast can do for a mediocre play than the current

production of “Breath of Spring” at the Newport Theater Arts Center.

Peter Coke’s gentle comedy about a band of senior citizens who

enrich their lives and the lives of others by pilfering fur coats has

been energized by what can only be termed the Terri Miller Schmidt

treatment. The veteran director has thrust the play’s comic aspects

into high gear and pushes the farcical pedal to the metal in a show

that abounds in sight gags and overall hilarity.

As written, the play takes its own sweet time warming up -- the

entire first act, in fact -- as the four elderly ladies and their

brigadier general leader formulate their desire to serve as geriatric

Robin Hoods. That’s when Schmidt’s performers establish the

peculiarities of their characters -- and each is, indeed, pretty

peculiar.

Dame Beatrice Appleby (Judy O’Dea), who runs a boarding house

catering to seasoned guests, employs a young Cockney maid (Teresa

Ravnikar) who’s spent some time on the wrong side of the law. Her

larcenous early days and well-intentioned pilfering of an expensive

fur piece serve as an inspiration for the others, who need a little

excitement in their lives.

And what a motley crew. There’s the brigadier (Howard Patterson),

who still lives on military precision; an outrageous flirt (Margaret

VandenBerghe) who’s out to conquer the general; a vocal instructor

(Harriet Whitmyer) with the precise speech of a Henry Higgins, and a

dotty old maid (Teri Ciranna), who’s a hypochondriac collection of

exposed nerve endings.

Put this many scene-stealers on one stage, and it’s not only the

fur pieces at risk of abduction. It’s pretty much a wash as to which

one impresses the most, but Ciranna’s goofy mugging and outlandish

antics make it nearly impossible to keep your eyes off her.

O’Dea blends her character’s sophistication with a gleeful

appetite for “the game” as the show’s central figure. She’s

splendidly supported by Ravnikar, the lovely and streetwise servant

who attempts to keep her beloved boss from the fate she once endured.

Patterson’s by-the-book brigadier, who becomes the leader of the

fur filchers, is funny without resorting to cliched characterization,

a focused general entirely unaware of VandenBerghe’s outlandish

advances toward him. Her seductive sequences are particularly

effective to the audience, if not to Patterson.

Whitmyer, the mistress of enunciation, is, quite literally, a

scream as she employs her vocal acumen to further the operation.

Throw in a befuddled Scotland Yard inspector (a terrific cameo by

Mitchell Nunn), and you have a thoroughly entertaining mixture.

The well-appointed interior setting by Martin Eckmann, with its

window on the city, is a visual delight, and Suji Brewer’s costumes

are gleefully overstated. Even the sound design, by Ron Wyand, plays

an important role, entertaining between acts with the mood-setting

likes of “The Pink Panther” and the “Colonel Bogey March” from “The

Bridge Over the River Kwai.”

“Breath of Spring” is still a modest little comedy, but it’s an

evening of unbridled hilarity.