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by Ferenc Molnár, adapted by Michael Healey, directed by Albert Schultz

Soulpepper Theatre Company, Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto

July 21-September 29, 2005

On the surface Olympia (1928) by Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár seems like a frothy comedy with an operetta plot.  Yet, at its core it is a romantic tragedy where adherence to class divisions crushes personal happiness.  As Michael Healey’s deft adaptation makes clear, Molnár consciously uses the structure of light comedy as a façade just as the play’s witty social discourse barely masks the savagery underneath.  While director Albert Schultz and his cast don’t really find the right balance between comic and serious, the play is a rarity that theatre-lovers will want to check out.

During her stay at a spa hotel, the aristocrat Olympia (Kristin Booth) and Kovacs (Stuart Hughes), a peasant-born captain, have fallen in love.  When Olympia’s class-conscious mother, Princess Eugenie (Nancy Palk), demands that Olympia drop Kovacs, she immediately obeys.  The question is whether Kovacs really is who claims to be.

Booth has a radiant presence but does not always communicate the constant conflict between what Olympia says and what she feels.  Hughes shows only Kovacs’s dangerous side, not the elegant poise that’s said to impress everyone.  Palk tries too hard to be eccentric, leaving Oliver Dennis’s pricelessly funny turn as an inept would-be detective to steal the show. 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-07-28.

Photo: Kristin Booth (front) and Nancy Palk (back). ©2005