So, Hilary is in love with George…
Oh no, wait, it’s apparently Brian that Hilary loves! No, no, wait a minute, Brian seems to be in love with Wendy who’s… Hold it now, it looks like George in fact loves Jessica and she… No, now it’s Wendy who is in love with… say, just who is actually in love with whom here?
Well, the answers to those questions, and a great many more besides, are what makes Touch and Go, the new show now on stage at Upper Canada Playhouse until August 30, such delicious, slightly wicked fun. Playwright Derek Benfield’s adult comedy about five very “busy” professionals dashing between two flats strikes a strong laughter chord with audiences.
“You really have to keep the pace moving in a farce,” said director Donnie Bowes. “Everything is very snappy.”
And it is a real asset, in the case of Touch and Go, to have a strong cast, one which handles the physical and emotional demands of this light speed production with deceptive ease. “Many of us have worked together before,” said actor Brian Young at an earlier press conference. “We know each other well, and can play off each other when we’re on stage. We have to switch gears very fast in this play, moving from emotion to emotion.”
In a farce, there is virtually no time for traditional ‘character development’. The audience has to understand each character almost from the moment the curtains open. This understanding is crucial, since mad plot complications are immediate, and, as Bowes said, “they snowball. The audience knows right from the top what the stakes are for every character.”
Veterans through the years of many and varied Playhouse productions, Susan Greenfield, Edward Chaplin, Brain Young, Alison Lawrence and AnnaMarie Lea establish their characters’ personalities and motivations right from the outset.
With the couples, Brian Young’s bemused stares, Susan Greenfield’s wide-eyed desperation, Alison Lawrence’s determination to “do the right thing” (sort of), the outrageous efforts of Edward Chaplin to stymie those same “good intentions” at every turn, are hilarious. It’s true that this particular quartet is a conniving lot, but if truth be told, audiences are also sort of rooting for them. Mind you, Hilary, George, Jessica and Brian could teach Machiavelli a thing or two when it comes to inventing stories and cover ups. Added into this mixture is AnnaMarie Lea’s ‘Wendy’ the cashier. Lea plays her as a near innocent (despite her romantic entanglements), who operates in a certain wonderful state of confusion. Yes, she is having an affair. However, when it comes to scheming underhandedness, she is out of her league compared to the two well-to-do couples whose flats are the settings of all the trysts and assignations.
What a versatile, agile and comically talented cast.
Bicycle clips, tap dancers, puddles, transforming clothes, the Coach and Horses pub, even the Goodwill somehow end up tossed into this Benfield farce. Part of the fun, of course, is that there is a new plot twist practically every time the audience draws breath.
(And who would ever have thought that Coq au Vin, an otherwise rather nice bit of stewed chicken, could ultimately generate so much deliberate on stage “ham”?)
Touch and Go is outrageous and very funny. It has a strong and talented cast. All audiences have to do is sit back, get comfortable, and prepare to laugh. A lot.
For tickets and information, contact Upper Canada Playhouse at 613-543-3713.
