"Stop by and see" The Cottage

There's nothing to attract the comedy audience more than a good, well-done show about stupidity among the rich and famous.It’s a formula and there have been many writers who have done well from providing the material, certainly including George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. In the Alleyway Theatre’s production of Sandy Rustin’s ‘The Cottage,’ she contributes a family in which almost everyone is cheating and it’s accepted and confusing.

Director David E. Shane has done a nice job with the show, overcoming a late quit by a cast member and the illness of another.

The story is set in those years after World War I, when the cost of the war in human misery has become so clear.

‘Richard’ (Daniel F. Lendzian) has dodged some of that by deserting from his Royal Navy unit, changing his name and starting a business.He also married although that only becomes an issue later.Rustin is very specific about what’s she’s doing, setting the events starting just before 9 a.m. June 4, 1923 in a lavish family-owned cottage (design by Tim McMath) in the countryside 90 minutes outside London and within walking distance of the train station.

Beau (Todd Benzin) and Sylvia (Anna Krempholtz) are just arising from a weekend of pleasure and preparing to go back to Town, he to wife Marjorie (Kelly Copps) and Sylvia to her husband, Clarke (Chris J. Handley), the husband she plans to divorce and told him so in a telegram. Sylvia and Beau have an arrangement for a weekend every seven years. Clearly both are in troubled marriages but they have money and the use of his Mother’s cottage. Then, Clarke arrives with his pregnant girlfriend, Marjorie, and things get interesting. There is some curiosity: Who is Dad? Also, what to do about the situation.

There is a lot of fine physical comedy in the show, particularly from Benzin and Krempholtz and plenty of stiff upper lip British stuff.When Richard and Dierdre (Paige Cummings) arrive, things get strange and then borderline violent. Of course, since this is Britain, although from an American writer, there is limited violence, lots of drinks poured and seeming resolution.Mother dies by phone message and the cottage goes to a surprising choice.It’s all a lot of fun and stuffy Brits not letting their sexual escapades interfere with the proper things of life.

This isn’t a particularly long show and director Shane is working with a strong cast. He also has good costume work from Collin Ranney, particularly for the men with suits which look right out of London’s Saville Row. These are rich people who won’t let down the side. There is also a painting of Mother over the fireplace, produced by AI, a combination of the faces of Handley and Benzin. It’s a nice touch.

‘The Cottage’ is a funny show which ought to draw crowds to the Alleyway. Handley is also the Alleyway’s executive artistic director and wanted to open the season with a fun show. He succeeded. Stop by and see.