<b>✭✭✭</b>✩✩
<b>by Terence Rattigan, directed by Kate Lynch
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
May 26-September 15, 2012
</b>
“Comme si, comme ça”
<i>French Without Tears</i> from 1936 was Terence Rattigan’s first major success. It is a frothy comedy with lots of atmosphere but unlike later Rattigan’s plays leaves you with little or nothing to ponder afterwards. The current revival by the Shaw Festival offers an agreeable entertainment even if director Kate Lynch doesn’t quite find all there is in the fairly shallow subject matter.
The action takes place in a residential cramming school in a seaside town in France where upperclass young men go to learn French to pass their language exams to join the diplomatic corps. A student like Kenneth Lake (Billy Lake) is proving a constant frustration to their professor Monsieur Maingot (Michael Ball). Brian Curtis (Craig Pike) seems to have given up learning for the pleasures of the town. Kit Neilan (Wade Bogert-O’Brien) is serious about learning but encounters constant distraction, while Alan Howard (Ben Sanders) already has excellent French and is more concerned with choosing whether to become a diplomat as his father wishes or a writer.
The prime distraction for the male students is Kenneth’s sister Diana (Robin Evan Willis), whose reason for being there is not at all clear. She has captured the affections of Kit and has thereby embittered Alan, who tells everyone she is merely a temptress who enjoys seducing men and then discarding them. His theory proves true with the arrival of naval Lieutenant-Commander William Rogers (Martin Happer), who has come there to cram to pass his interpreter’s test. Diana soon sets her sights on him and eventually is stringing both Kit and Bill along with exactly the same phrases. As a further complication Monsieur Maingot’s daughter Jacqueline (Julie Martell), who also teaches, has fallen in love with Kit, who has taken no notice of in the past two months.
What comes across most strongly in the show is the pre-war atmosphere of Maingot’s villa in the seaside town in the cosy set by William Schmuck under the delicate lighting by Kirsten Watt. A lovely scene in Act 2 lit only by candles is especially evocative. Most of the humour comes from the schoolboy banter of the male residents and their mangled French until a confrontation between Kit and the Commander over Diana gels by the end of Act 1. From what we have seen of Diana and from what she says of herself, we don’t wish either combatant success and hope much more that Kit will finally notice Jacqueline.
Director Kate Lynch captures the image of boisterous life in the villa and draws performances from Bogert-O’Brien and Martell that reveal unexpressed contradictory feelings – Jacqueline toward Kit and Kit toward Diana and his housemates. If Lynch could only draw such performances from Willis and Sanders, the show would be much more satisfying. Bogert-O’Brien and Martell’s characters undergo a significant change in perception that they carry out beautifully. Willis and Sanders’ characters undergo a similar change, though one more fundamental to their self-image, but Lynch has them carry on as before without emphasizing this change in order to save it as a surprise for the end. This strategy robs the comedy of what little depth it could achieve since it does not allow Willis and Sanders to explore another side to their characters’ natures.
The nervous Billy Lake and the blasé Craig Pike provide excellent foils for the turmoils of the two other young male students. Happer is hilarious as the stolid, uptight Commander, feeling completely out of place among disrespectful young people. Michael Ball gives an impressive performance especially since it is almost entirely in French. Saccha Dennis has the small role of the servant Marianne but she lights up stage so much with her presence you wish Rattigan had given her more to do. From the very beginning of the play everyone speaks of the impending arrival of Lord Heybrook. The big joke when he arrives at the very end is undercut by a mistaken costume choice that should dress him to emphasize his age not his position.
Rattigan fans and those looking for a pleasant, undemanding comedy at the Shaw will be pleased. For those who like comedy to be a bit more challenging, the Shaw has many other choices on offer. As the Shaw’s production of <i>After the Dance</i> showed in 2008, Rattigan’s subsequent works have been undervalued for far too long. Let’s hope to see more of them in the future.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a <i>Stage Door</i> exclusive.
Photo: Ben Sanders and Robin Evan Willis. ©2012 Emily Cooper.
For tickets, visit <a href="http://www.shawfest.com">www.shawfest.com</a>.
<b>2012-08-06</b>
<b>French Without Tears</b>