“School for Scandal”Under the Stars at the Will Geer (09/08)

You may be skeptical of attending a period comedy of manners written over 300 years ago, especially when it’s close to three hours long and you have to trek up Topanga Canyon see it.  I know I was. 

The last time I was at a performance a decade or so ago at the historic Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, it was more Botanicum than Theatricum.  It is a memory of a mosquito-ridden camping trip and it unfortunately overshadowed my seeing a favorite Brecht-Weill  play! 

My resistance this time around was rewarded twice over with joy.   The drive and the parking are now easy on the new Canyon road, and so is the walk to the sheltered rustic theatre, now comfortably terraced into the hillside with its enchanting stage set around the famed giant tree.  You couldn’t help but wonder if the hospitable staff also arranged the perfect, star-lit balmy summer evening.

Attending “School for Scandal” for historic reasons is enough. After all, it was a favorite play of inveterate theatergoer, General George Washington.   One of the best known traditionalist playwrights, Sheridan is studied second only to Shakespeare, and “School for Scandal” is regarded as one of the finest comedies in the English language.

And fear not about Richard Brinsley Sheridan being a bore.  How could he be? Before the age of 21 he had fought two duels and managed one romantic elopement to France. By age 30 he had earned a reputation for grand, mythical speeches as an orator in Parliament.  And in later years as a poverty-stricken alcoholic he was hauled from his bed to a sponging house for indebtedness by the local sheriff.  

Living the high life and the low apparently gave Sheridan insight to write “School for Scandal” in as lively and contemporary a way as E! Entertainment, and far more catty, complex and cathartic. Add to this the delicious language, and the Will Geer ensemble bringing to life the words.

That wit, humor and social commentary of “School for Scandal” touches a nerve over 300 years after its London premiere.  People still delight in categorizing people and talking about them.  And everyone’s liaisons are fodder for the mill.

This is clear from the moment the gossip-mongers saunter, mince or gallop onstage to begin their quest for news, real or imagined. The scandal-hunting nose of Lady Candour (Katherine Griffith as laugh-provoking and delicious as Dame Edna), in fact, seems to be a foot ahead of the rest of her.  

Your eyes just don’t know what to take in first on the broad stage with its full setting of a drawing room that doubles for each of the homes, with ramps and side buildings and balconies that make you forget that there is no curtain.   

 

Shon LeBanc’s giddy, brightly-colored costumes set up the cotton candy essence of the character’s intellect and the fun to follow.   And every stitch of clothing matches from the foot-high hair to the pointy shoes.  Ms. Griffith revealed that the ladies corsets inside also matched in color!

The names that roll merrily off the tongue also act as guide to the action ahead:  Lady Sneerwell, Widow Snake and  Sir Benjamin Backbite.  In a story filled with ironies and schemes that go horribly wrong, the plot hinges around the recent marriage of middle-aged, wealthy, Sir Peter Teazle (Franc Ross) to the young and foolish country girl (Willow Geer). The new Lady Teazle, pursues with a silly vengeance a young boyfriend and shopping in order to fit into the fashionable local society.   

Meanwhile, we follow the exploits of brothers Charles (Jeff Weisen) and Joseph (Mark Lewis) Surface, out after their uncle Oliver Surface’s fortune,  and the most malicious backbiter of the lot, Lady Sneerwell (Susan Angelo, gliding around the stage as oily as a snake around to pounce).   We know she stands head and shoulders in power because her Lady SHIP wears a two-foot tall hat with an actual sloop inside of it!

When Sir Oliver (Tim Halligan) arrives unexpectedly after such a long trip to Australia that he can assume another identity, he exposes all of the character’s guilty pleasures and petty obsessions – including his own – for a satisfying surprise ending.  And it is one that comes long before there is enough time to relish the magnificent starry sky overhead.   

The School for Scandal, In Reportory at The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum,  Friday, Saturday,Sunday through September 27.  Pre-theatre discussion on August 22.

Tickets $15-$28,  Children $8, under 5, free. (310) 455-3723, www.theatricum.com.