Ensemble ‘Unnecessary Farce’ brings the laughs
Play kicks off a season of ‘political issues’
What better way to launch a theatrical season than with a belly laugh? Or maybe two hours filled with them?
That’s the thinking behind Vaughn Irving, artistic director for the Santa Fe Playhouse, opting for “Unnecessary Farce” by Paul Slade Smith as the opening production for the 2017 season.
“It’s one of the funniest plays I’ve seen,” said Irving, who also is directing it. “The rehearsals are so much fun ... we’re cracking up all the time.”
The play hasn’t been on Broadway, but has been a big hit on the regional theater scene since it opened in Lansing, Mich., in 2006. It’s been performed more than 200 times, both around the United States and internationally.
The ingredients include a mayor suspected of corruption, his head security guard trying to protect him and two hapless police officers who set up a surveillance operation in hopes of gathering evidence when the mayor meets with his new accountant. Oh, and there’s a Scottish assassin, too.
“Lots of plot twists happen along the way,” Irving said. “Incompetence abounds ... . ”
Still, he said, the audience ends up rooting for the police officers, “although it’s really an ensemble show,” he added. “Everyone carries a lot of weight.”
Oh, and there are eight doors onstage that “always are slamming and opening,” he said. “Often, there are two scenes happening at the same time. It’s really challenging for the performers.”
But, he added, “I’m so lucky. Our cast is so stellar.”
Those cast members include Kevin Atkinson, Pat Beck, Melissa Christopher, Silas Harris, Charlotte Jusinski, David McConnell and Matthew O’Kelly.
A political season
This farce, which previews Thursday and runs ThursdaysSundays through March 12,
leads off a season with a theme of “political issues,” said Irving, who adds that he put together the slate in September, before the votes were cast and results revealed in the presidential election.
“A lot of them are dealing very seriously with a lot of important issues in the nation and in Santa Fe,” he said.
And when he picked “1984,” adapted from George Orwell’s book, to run March 30-April 16, he had no idea it would become a top-selling book again in the wake of the Trump presidency. The story echoes our current digital world in a society where Big Brother is always watching, and where its acceptance of “doublethink” and “newspeak” has called to mind the administration’s mention of “alternative facts.”
Coming up May 4-21 will be Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play),” previously presented by Santa Fe Performing Arts in 2011 at the Armory for the Arts. This comedy mines historical reality in showing a doctor whose treatment of “hysterical” women by stimulating them to sexual climax was eased when an electric vibrator came on the scene. The resulting waves affect both his clients and his household.
“I’m hoping it can get us talking about women’s issues in the modern day ... ,” Irving said. “It’s funny, but a lot of hurt and some important subjects are discussed.”
Following that, from June 8-25, is Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart,” a story showing how the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s reversed many of the advances that had been made in the gay rights movement. “It’s a tragic story, but a really important bit of history to go back to,” Irving said. “The issues raised in the play are still super-important.”
Then you can ask yourself what good it is sitting alone in your room and go to “Cabaret,” a classic musical set in Berlin during the rise of the Nazi Party, when it is performed July 20-Aug. 6. The Kit Kat Club will be set up on the stage, where the entertainers, part of the Bohemian circle at the time, find themselves increasingly at odds with the political times.
“Their society is at the point of changing due to fear,” Irving said. “I don’t want to be a fearmonger, but this is something we should be way cognizant of — in terms of global politics, not just here. We should not sacrifice our morals for a sense of security and order.”
Then Aug. 24-Sept. 10 is the 98th Fiesta Melodrama, which always is about politics, followed by the Different Festival of new plays Oct. 12-Nov. 5.
The Playhouse will develop its own holiday show for Dec. 7-24 that may not have politics in it. “It will still be a heartwarming holiday experience because I think it’s important to do that once a year,” Irving said. “We will have a redeeming, purging holiday experience.”