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by Ferenc Molnár, adapted by Morwyn Brebner,

directed by Blair Williams

Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

July 9-October 9, 2011

The Shaw Festival has revived The President, its hit lunchtime show from 2008.  If you saw it before, you’ll want to see it again.  If you missed it before, don’t make the same mistake twice.  Three years later this lunchtime show still deliver the most uproarious hour of fun you may ever have in the theatre.

Though most of the cast has changed, two key players remain--Lorne Kennedy in the title role as Norrison, president of an enormous company, and Jeff Meadows as Tony Foot a clueless communist cab driver.  Kennedy’s performance is still a tour-de-force.  He delivers his lines with breathtaking rapidity and yet with such absolute clarity that you would gasp at the his sheer technical virtuosity if your continuous bouts of laughter gave you any chance to do so.  Meanwhile, Meadows’ character’s verbal and mental slowness is perfect foil for Norrison’s tachylalia and presticogitation.

Briefly, Norrison is confronted with the fact that his ward Lydia, whose wealthy parents have entrusted to him to protect from vice in the big city, has secretly married and is pregnant by Tony Foot, the most unsuitable candidate possible.  With Lydia’s parents’ arrival immanent, Norrison has only one hour to transform Tony from a nobody and slob to the kind of aristocratic executive that her parents would admire.  To emphasize the pressure of time, playwright Molnár has a secretary pop in cuckoo clock-like every ten minutes to announce the time.

Morwyn Brebner’s adaptation of Peter Kaslik’s translation of Egy, kettő, három (“One, Two, Three”) cleverly transfers the action from 1929 Budapest to 1960s New York.  While her dialogue is funny what keeps the audience doubled-over in laughter is not only Kennedy’s performance but the entire cast’s absolute precision in the revved up action and dialogue.  

It’s amazing how many members of the 15-person cast create instantly memorable characters in a minimum of stage time.  Julie Martell takes over the role of Lydia and makes her brunette Marilyn Monroe clone where innocence and sexuality combine in an irresistible mélange.  Peter Millard handily takes over the role of Bartelby, Norrison’s unflappable advisor.  Jenny L. Wright is the new Miss Petrovich, in constant tears over a not-so-secret heartache.  Ken James Stewart ably distinguishes himself in three roles--the accountant Mr. Pinsky who really does seem to be dying of fever; the photographer Mr. Christian, whose cowardly rejection of Miss Petrovich Norrison manages to solve along with everything else; and the incredible homely Miss Hoygabow, whom Norrison assigns to Foot as the secretary least likely to arouse jealousy.  Michael Ball returns in the tiny but memorable cameo as the Count von Schottenberg, a drunken janitor whose aristocratic name passes on to Tony through rapid adoption.  To have Laurie Paton and Tara Rosling as two of Norrison’s secretaries is luxury casting indeed.

It couldn’t be more fitting for the Shaw Festival to revive this play for its 50th season with its magnificent central performance and the entire cast in top form.  If laughter is the best medicine, here’s a play that will give you a super-concentrated dose of youth and happiness.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Julie Martell and Lorne Kennedy. ©2011 David Cooper.

For tickets, visit www.shawfest.com.