Theater review: 'Norman Conquests' trilogy
by Robert Hurwitt
Wednesday, August 25 2010
The
San Francisco Chronicle
There are more than enough laughs in Alan Ayckbourn's
"The Norman Conquests" for one comedy. There
probably aren't quite enough for two, let alone three
- which is what Ayckbourn's 1973 creation is.
As seen at the Ashby Stage, where Shotgun Players is staging the full trilogy - just as at Berkeley Repertory Theatre almost 30 years ago - "Norman" is one very funny sex farce spread out over three plays.
That's both a limitation and an achievement. Ayckbourn's skill is impressive in divvying up one weekend of attempted infidelities into three overlapping comedies, each taking place in a different part of the same home. As the libidinous Norman arrives for an assignation with his wife's sister, woos his other sister-in-law and even his fed-up wife, scenes that start in the backyard ("Round and Round the Garden") continue in the dining room ("Table Manners") and get consummated in the living room ("Living Together"), or vice versa in varying combinations.
That means that no one play contains the whole story, and each provides added information that makes the others funnier in context. The American Conservatory Theater's staging of "Garden" in May was better designed and acted, and got more laughs than Shotgun's does, but the humor didn't run as deep without the other plays. And it wasn't as funny as "Table Manners" is here.
As seen in three performances Saturday and Sunday, the first weekend for the full trilogy (which culminates in marathon stagings Sunday and Sept. 5), "Table" is the one play that stands alone. The longest, at two hours and 10 minutes, it's also the densest and most finely tuned under Joy Carlin's direction.
"Living" (one hour, 45 minutes), staged by Molly Aaronson-Gelb, is the thinnest of the lot, despite its two knockout scenes. "Garden" (just under two hours), directed with sharp touches by Mina Morita, starts awkwardly but hits full comic stride once Sarah Mitchell arrives, delivering withering sarcastic barbs with devastating world-weariness as Norman's wife, Ruth.
"Table" might work best because it's the play where Ruth shows up earliest. Mitchell strikes just the right note of heightened comic reality for Shotgun's cartoon-sitcom approach in a good but uneven cast.
Zehra Berkman captures the same quality in a gentler register as Annie, Ruth's frustrated sister, who's having an affair with Norman. Mick Mize is a delight playing Reg, their feckless and contentedly henpecked brother, with a Groucho-wannabe leer. His impersonation of a chess game is one highlight of "Living." The other is his attempt to tell a joke to Josiah Polhemus' beguiling, stolid Tom, Annie's slow suitor.
Kendra Lee Oberhauser's brittle Sarah, Reg's wife, takes some time to hit her stride in each play but comes off well once she does. Richard Reinholdt, unfortunately, takes the cartoon idea to extremes, playing Norman as an exaggerated, mugging buffoon. He settles into the action only when focused on wooing a woman.
But Norman's narcissistic hedonism is hard to make palatable, even in the context of the new liberated sexuality of early '70s England. It's the sharply observed comedy of family relations that scores best, reaching its peak in a hilariously problematic dinner in "Table."
It's a notable undertaking for Shotgun to stage the whole trilogy. The result is one very entertaining farce spread out over three shows.
