Gloucester Stage Opens Its Season With Peter Shaffer's Comedy "Lettice and Lovage" - A MUST SEE!

If you have an opportunity to plan a trip to Cape Ann between now and June 11th, do it.  For you do not want to miss the current production of Peter Shaffer's brilliant and acerbic comedy "Lettice and Lovage." Benny Sato Ambush flawlessly directs a superb cast in this piece that addresses issues of passion, language, the greying of our lives, and the importance of truly living before we die.

The remarkable Lindsay Crouse plays Miss Lettice Douffet, a tour guide whose refusal to accept greyness and boredom gets her into perpetual trouble with forces in the world that prefer stability to passion. This is a tour de force performance that should not be missed. She savors every syllable of Shaffer's gorgeous language as if appreciating a delicious morsel of food.  Her comic timing is precise, and her joie de vivre is as contagious as the character she portrays. One simply cannot be in the vicinity of Lettice Douffet without being infected with her quirky passion for history and drama and story and life.

Lindsay Crouse as Lettice Douffet
"Lettice and Lovage"
by Peter Shaffer
Gloucester Stage
Through June 11th

The first person to attempt to tamp down Lettice's quirky and inventive act - making up interesting factoids to add some spark of interest to a dull old English mansion - is Miss Charlotte Shoen, head of HR for the Preservation Trust that employs Ms. Douffet as a tour guide. Ms. Shoen is played brilliantly by Marya Lowry.  In the midst of her telling Ms. Douffet that she is fired for not sticking to the facts, she is bewitched by Lettice's histrionics, and quickly regrets her decision.  She arrives at Lettice's humble basement flat near Earl's Court to offer an olive branch.  The lives of the two women will never be the same as some of Lettice's glitter sticks to Ms. Shoen grey patina and the quirky story teller entices the failed architect to construct a new world view. It is like Auntie Mame telling Agnes Gooch "to live!"

We learn in Act III that Lettice has run afoul of the law through some accident that befell Ms. Shoen. Lettice is visited by a solicitor, the dull and business-like Mr. Berdolph (Mark Cohen).  But his immune system cannot resist the passion that Lettice exudes, and we are regaled by his getting into the spirit of things and miming a drummer beating out a tattoo to lead an historical royal figure to an execution. Mark Cohen shows wonderful dramatic range as the Lettice virus takes hold in his spirit and he blossoms into an unlikely party animal.

One other character who falls under the spell of Lettice and her passion for living is Ms. Shoen's mousy secretary, Miss Framer (a wonderfully understated Janelle Mills).  She is initially so reserved that Ms. Shoen cannot hear her feeble knocking at the door, but before long, with the spirit of Lettice infusing the office, her knocks resound with bombastic authority.

In three of Shaffer's plays that I am most familiar with, a familiar pattern appears. A protagonist possess passion that verges on neurosis and mania, and is confronted with an antagonist who exists to muffle the excesses. In "Equus" that tension is between Alan, who has blinded six horses, and his psychiatrist, Dr. Dysart. In "Amadeus," the tension is between young Mozart and Salieri, who aspires to greatness, but lacks Mozart's passion and willingness to risk. In "Lettice and Lovage," the dyad is composed of Lettice and Charlotte.

Lindsay Crouse as Lettice DouffetMarya Lowry as Charlotte Shoen
"Lettice and Lovage"
by Peter Shaffer
Gloucester Stage
Through June 11th

Throughout this brilliant comedy, Mr. Shaffer allows his characters to wrestle with important issues: the lack of appreciation for beauty in language, the willingness to settle for grey rather than vibrancy in living life, the willingness to sacrifice beauty to utility in modern architecture, the tendency for people to value stability over creativity and exuberance, and the question of what does it mean to be "normal."

The play is an absolute delight on every level.  The set by Jon Savage is wonderfully adaptable - from English mansion to working class flat to dull office space.  Lighting is by Brian J. Lillienthal and Sound Design and Original Music is by Dewey Dellay.  Costumes by Miranda Kau Giurleo, and Amelia Broome served as Dialect Coach.

Come and drink up some of the quaff that is Lettice's philosophy of life, derived from her mother who had run a theater company as a single parent: "Enlarge! Enliven! Enlighten!"

Through June 11th.

Gloucester Stage Website

Enjoy!

Al