Review: PRIVATE LIVES at Vermont Stage Company

At Vermont Stage Company, if each season is a multi-course feast of theater, then the Bake-Off is its sweet, dessert finish.

Marketed as "one play made three ways," the annual Bake-Off was conceived of by artistic director Cristina Alicea as a playful way to conclude each season, allowing three directors a chance to flex their imaginative muscles in original and thought-provoking ways. Unfettered by pesky impediments like full-script continuity, story arc or cohesive production elements, the directors can train their casts--different from act to act--for a sprint, not a marathon. Half the fun of the entire endeavor is the mental acrobatics required of audience members just to keep up.

Since Alicea took the helm at VSC, the fearless Bake-Off directors have tackled plays from Neil Simon's 1965 play Barefoot in the Park to a 2005 adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. In between, contemporary female playwrights, Sarah Ruhl and Caryl Churchill offered audiences intellectually challenging fare with Eurydice and A Number, while Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy and A.R. Gurney's The Dining Room--both of which coincidentally opened off-broadway in January 1981--provided ample latitude for farce and satire. This year, Alicea selected Private Lives by Noël Coward.

Although jumping across the pond is not new territory for the Bake-Off, jumping all the way back to the 1930s most certainly is. How would each director address this centurial leap into the past? What relevance would 2018 audiences find in this satire? Would Coward's signature wit and wordplay still wow us today?

A quick scan of the cast list made it clear that none of the three directors was particularly interested in traditional interpretations, with gender-bending, double-casting, mid-act role swapping, and a fab finale with five fierce females all hinted at within the program. And, indeed, in the first five seconds of act one all bets were off as Ethan White, playing 23-year-old newlywed bride Sybil, emerged onto his balcony with iPhone in hand, presumably capturing the view on Instagram before switching to selfie mode to more fully document the first moments of a honeymoon destined to go terribly awry.

Larry Connolly, who directed the first of a three acts, said he felt "freed from the bondage of a whole production" and jumped on the opportunity to use double-casting in the only act that features all four actors but never more than two couple-pairings at a time. This would never hold up over the entire production, but was perfect for the plot's farcical conceit that is act one. Each actor dons a pair of sunglasses to indicate when they are playing either Elyot or Amanda and ditch the jaded, shaded look when playing Victor or Sybil--the latter being the smitten, first-time spouses of the fatally flawed divorcees. Mary Krantz deftly plays both Elyot and Victor to White's Sybil and Amanda, but unlike the decision to double-cast, gender-bending was not initially part of Connolly's plan. He explains that in auditions, Krantz ended up reading a few of the Victor/Elyot parts and "blew [Connolly] out of the water," and, as act-one Amanda says, "everything that happens is chance." So true.

Act two continues with only two actors, which is not surprising, given it is the only act in the play which features only Elyot and Amanda (Victor and Sybil having been abandoned in their honeymoon suites in act one). But here's the rub: actors Jason Lorber and Kathryn Blume are playing Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence playing Elyot and Amanda, each. What madcap mischief is director Chris Caswell up to?

Like an onion, the act has layers, peeling back as the action progresses. First, we see two director's chairs with "NOEL" and "GERTRUDE" emblazoned on each. We are in a new meta-reality indisputably in 1930 as the 2018 actors play the original actors playing Elyot and Amanda. Lorber and Blume are masterful comedic actors, fully embracing the physical, gestural, and verbal timing needed in farce, while nailing the nuance needed to reveal all of the subtext and layers constructed in large part from the maverick mind of its director, Caswell.

In a world where two professional actors are conducting a seemingly impromptu rehearsal of Private Lives' second act (vis-à-vis the absent director--see? layers), there is no force impelling them to rehearse in any particular fashion, so midway through the act, they make a nonverbal decision to turn their part over to the other, exploring the facets and elements of their opposite. This allows Lorber and Blume to ratchet up the ridiculous and let loose. The conscious elements of the gender-bend between friends sets it apart from act one's more laissez faire flip and the warm friendship between real life Coward and Lawrence is allowed room to shine.

Completing the theatrical hat trick, Abbie Tykocki brings the production home with a estrogen-enhanced third act. Perhaps inspired by images of Gertrude Lawrence from the original Private Lives wearing a long, flowing white satin dress, each of the four strikingly statuesque actors wears variations on the white jumpsuit theme--the two cast as Elyot (Susan Palmer) and Victor (Katelyn Paddock) occasionally flinging on or off a simple dark blazer. The set is spare and doors are located at three of the four corners of the thrust stage, indicating that much coming and going should be expected in this act.

Shakespeare's tragedies require the presence of the fool to juxtapose the darkness with light and, inversely, Coward's comedy benefits from a dour outsider to bear witness to the folly of our four ill-fated characters. This outsider comes in the form of the fifth ensemble member, Emily Benway, who plays Louise, the French maid--first to enter one of these doors in act three. What Benway lacks in comparable vertical status, she more than makes up with her comedic griping and grumbling and larger-than-life eye rolling and jaw clenching; she is marvelously entertaining and perfectly cast.

The remaining "cast of Amazons," as Tykocki refers to them are an ethereal ensemble--decked out as they are in head-to-toe white--of sheer talent. Susan Palmer, Allison Brown, Katelyn Paddock, and Sarah Wright manage seismic swings in dynamics, transitioning from offense to defense sometimes within a single turn of phrase. Everything feels carefully thought out and precision and timing are impeccable. In the final moments, their group's collective dysfunction morphs in front of our eyes over coffee and a plate of brioche in a delightfully wicked turn of events that leave the audience to question whether amoral discord might be a rather contagious affliction.

The Bake-Off's Private Lives plays through June 17 in the FlynnSpace, 153 Main St. Burlington, VT 05401 $28-$38. 802-863-5966, www.vermontstage.org