A good time is clearly being had by all.
Or at least the company of Into the Breeches! surely makes it seem that way. A project of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the first of three pieces offered by their IN THE WORKS festival at the Grandel Theater, it certainly deserves to be described as rollicking.
George Brant’s play gives us the home front of World War II, with a script that’s individualized to reflect the city in which it’s played. That’s the sort of thing that adds to the fun with insider jokes to offer a few swirls of decorative icing on top of this very elaborate cake. We’re in the Oberon Play House, which is canceling its season because its resident director and almost all the men connected with it are away at war. Maggie (Michelle Hand),the director’s wife, wants to stage a condensed version of Henry IV, parts 1 and 2, and Henry V with an all-woman cast. Ellsworth (Gary Wayne Baker), who owns the theater, is absolutely having none of it. Still, he hesitantly goes along when his wife Winnifred (Katy Keating) is offered a role. After all, she was in a play when she was at Rosati-Kain – where, she reports proudly, the Post-Dispatch said she “rounded out the cast.”
Celeste (Kari Ely), the resident diva and the only one with serious acting experience, is on board immediately. But the response to Maggie’s audition notices is tepid. They end up with June (Mary McNulty) and Grace (Laura Reisinger), whose husbands have enlisted. Three actors to do a four-hour show? Stuart (Ben Nordstrom), the long-time stage manager, volunteers to appear onstage as well. And Ida (Jacqueline Thompson), the house costumer, steps up to the plate. Maggie will not only direct, she, too, will act. They’ll have to do with seven, four of whom are rookies. And Stuart is not a woman.
Somehow, the chaos that inevitably ensues is not laced with cliches; there are serious issues at hand. It’s exquisitely cast by director Nancy Bell. Hand and Ely work together like yarn and knitting needles in the hand of a fiber wizard. Nordstrom is at his best, using his gift for physical comedy to great effect. It’s a pleasure to see the warm midlife marital relationship of Baker and Keating. Thompson is strong as a talented woman in a still-legally-segregated St. Louis. Mc Nulty and Reisinger’s young military wives discovering they can have a life of their own are very watchable indeed.
Margery and Peter Spack did the backstage-y feeling and very adaptable set. The costumes from Michele Friedman Siler kept getting more and more fun. Joe Clapper’s lights added to the half-real/half-make-believe feel of the evening, and Rusty Wandall’s sound design, combined with the actors’ care, made this space, sometimes an acoustical nightmare, work as well as I’ve heard it in a long, long time.
Reassure your friends they don’t need to be familiar with Shakespeare to enjoy Into the Breeches! and carry them forthwith to the Grandel. 18 and under get in free, for an added bonus. This is an absolutely delightful piece of work.
Into the Breeches!
Through November 18
Shakespeare Festival St. Louis
Grandel Theatre
3610 Grandel Square at Grand
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