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written by Miklós László, adapted by Adam Pettle & Brenda Robins, directed by Morris Panych

Soulpepper Theatre Company, Young Centre, Toronto

December 2-24, 2009

"The Shop Around the Corner"

In an obscure 1937 Hungarian play, Soulpepper may have found a delightful alternative to Michael Shamata’s perennially popular version of “A Christmas Carol” that it will stage again next year.  Few may have heard of the play “Parfumerie” by Miklós László (1903-73), but most will find the nugget of its plot familiar.  Two anonymous pen-pals have fallen in love with each other, not knowing that in real life they both work together and can’t stand each other.   

The plot is familiar from the play’s many famous adaptations.  In 1940 fellow Central European émigré Ernst Lubitsch made it into the film “The Shop Around the Corner” with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan.  In 1949 Robert Z. Leonard shifted the location to the US in his film “In the Good Old Summertime” starring Judy Garland and Van Johnson.  In 1963 Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick moved the story back in Budapest in their musical “She Loves Me.”  Then in 1998 Nora Ephron brought the action back to the US in the age of e-mail with her film comedy “You’ve Got Mail” starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.   

In László’s play itself, as adapted by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins, this plot takes a back seat in the first half to problems brewing between the employees at Hammerschmidt’s Parfumerie in Budapest and their boss Miklós Hammerschmidt.  The boss has been in in increasing foul mood lately even though Christmas is approaching and has made George Asztalos the focus of his anger.  This reached the point where, like Scrooge, he fires the loyal employee just before the holiday.  Hammerschmidt, however, is not motivated by miserliness or general misanthropy.  Rather, as we soon discover, he has learned that his wife has been having an affair with one of his employees and has assumed it was George.    

   

Joseph Ziegler is excellent as Hammerschmidt, worn and grumpy but looking as if a secret pain were gnawing at him from inside.  It is a real pleasure to see Oliver Dennis in a starring role as George and to be playing a younger character for a change.  The tension he creates between what he knows and what he says after he learns that his co-worker Rosie Balaz is his epistolary “Dear Friend” is priceless.  If only Patricia Fagan as Rosie could match him in this.  She is good at conveying one strong emotion at a time rather than the interplay of conflicting feelings which is what the play demands.  As it is Dennis seems to be acting for both of them.    

The secondary roles are all well taken.  Jeff Lillico makes a strong impression as Arpad the delivery boy who suddenly becomes officious as soon as he’s promoted to salesman.  Michael Simpson creates a very sympathetic Louis Sipos, a man who takes it on himself to smooth everyone’s ruffled feathers.  Kevin Bundy is suitably oily and supercilious as the local Don Juan, Stephen Kadash.  Among the women, Brenda Robins is very funny as the cashier Miss Molnar, who has a crush on Hammerschmidt, while Maev Beatty livens things up as the flirtatious Miss Ratz.   

The action takes place on Ken MacDonald’s Art Nouveau candy-box of a set, all pink and chocolate brown.  Bonnie Beecher’s lighting gives the scenes a wistful atmosphere.  Dana Osborne’s period costumes are attractive, especially the the double-bordered uniforms for the Hammerschmidt employees.  Morris Panych’s direction is best when staging the hustle and bustle of the little shop where the employees thank every departing customer in unison for shopping at Hammerschmidt’s.  What he is less good at is in sustaining the mood of nostalgia that the setting and design suggest.  It helps that he uses the gypsy music of a wandering accordionist (Noah Reid) and fiddler (Miranda Mulholland) to link the scenes, but we don’t quite get the sense of fragility, except when Panych has Arpad begin goose-stepping, which does not quite fit his character.  In 1937 this is a cosy world that will soon vanish, a feeling Lubitsch was certainly able to convey in his classic film. 

While Panych is good in the scenes between Hammerschmidt and Arpad, as the older man finally recognizes the worth of the younger, he doesn’t really catch all the nuances of George and Rosie’s relationship.  As with Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Benedick, we should perceive how their apparent irritation with each other is a strange expression of their mutual attraction.  Their public personae should really betray something of the romantic private natures that lie beneath.  

With a bit of tweaking the present goodish production could become truly enchanting.  The play’s themes of the search for love, forgiveness and a better life resonate with the holiday season.  László suggests that what we seek the most may be right in front of us if we would recognize it--a fine sentiment to put the materialism of the holidays in focus.  We have to thank Soulpepper for rescuing László’s play from oblivion and look forward to a revival of it in the future.    

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Oliver Dennis and Patricia Fagan. ©Cylla von Tiedemann.