Intiman's Heartbreak House Raises High The Roofbeams
We'd never seen the quotable George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House before; all we had to go on was the Intiman's postcard copy, which informed us that it is an "affectionate, Chekhovian portrait of England before the World War I."
Anyone can have an opinion, but Chekhov never made us laugh like this. Heartbreak House is outrageous, laugh-out-loud fun with a clan of free-thinking misfits along the lines of The Royal Tenenbaums. Occasional poignant calms are soon buffeted again by gleeful guffaws. It runs through August 26. Tickets are $37 - $46 ($10 for ages 25 or under). Call 206-269-1900 for details.
Set in old Captain Shotover's country manor (which he keeps literally ship-shape), the play occurs during a weekend gathering of guests, expected and unexpected. The arrival of Ellie (the pretty girl about to marry an older business tycoon) sets off a dizzying blend of lustful seductions, wild-eyed social and political pamphleteering, and conversational swashbuckling. What's it all about? Life is heartbreaking if you're doing it right, says Shaw, so learn to enjoy it.
Intiman fields a tightly knit cast for Heartbreak House There is a genuine familial tension onstage, which helps account for the urge to laugh wildly at news of 88-year-old Captain Shotover's stash of dynamite in the backyard.
The always surprising Alexandra Tavares, here combining demurely cast-down eyes with a will of steel and a romantically anarchic bent, is the lovely tip of the acting talent assembled. You also get to see Michael Winters (Shotover) battle with Laurence Ballard (the capitalist Mangan). As much as we loved Winters' grizzled, tempest-battered (he has two daughters), crazy-like-a-crazy-fox Captain, popping in and out of rooms to leave verbal mines floating in his wake, Ballard held his own.
His Cagney-voiced, unsuitable-suitor Mangan, stuffed with self-worth, thin-skinned, and shining with a greasy insecurity, is (almost) indomitably human. Introduced as "Boss" Mangan, he turns out to be a man who simply likes the work he does. Is he wrong for poor little poor-girl Ellie?
Hesione, the Captain's more whimsical daughter, thinks so, and plans to do her best to break things off -- not realizing that Ellie is much more pragmatic at heart. Kate Goehring's Hesione floats around as if suspended by the grand thoughts in her head, dramatically flourishing, intense -- and yet it's a front and beneath it, you sense her loneliness.
Why is she lonely? For one, because her sister Ariadne (now the imposing Lady Utterword, a portrayal we suspect Suzanne Bouchard modeled on Ann Coulter) has been AWOL from the family for 23 years, since running away from the Captain's bohemian moral rule for a life more conventional.
Bouchard's Lady Utterword, is a study in contrasts: while imperious, she's also easily affronted. While advocating a strong hand (her husband's) at England's tiller, she's busy tormenting his infatuated brother Randall (R. Hamilton Wright, who draws himself up then deflates with comic precision) and with wild make-out sessions with Hesione's husband Hector.
Stephen Pelinski, in an about-face from his purposeful Richard III, plays Hector as a faux-Byronic, gorgeously mustachioed man without a mission. He's not a caricature -- he's aware that he's his wife's housepet, but he can't think of a higher calling. Even adultery has lost some of its appeal.
Mazzini Dunn (Ellie's father) is introduced as a firebrand-gone-to-work. Named for the Italian hero, he works for Mangan as a manager. David Pichette lets him build slowly, his dignity and fair-mindedness voiced in just slightly chirrupy tones. And Suzy Hunt bustles in and out as Nurse Guinness, muttering in response to the surrounding craziness, easily startled and yet imperturbable after all.
Credit goes to director Jon Jory for the engrossing family dynamics, and also for taking Shaw seriously when he was serious. So much of it is in good rapid-fire fun, as enjoyable as being there, but when the last act comes, Jory is not afraid of that last bit of languor before the sound of war, which makes the war that much more violently out-of-place, disruptive. We also applaud Christopher Akerlind and Jennifer Zeyl for the pitch-perfect, nautically-tinged sets, and Deb Trout's costumes, especially Hector's get-up in the second act.
Photos: Chris Bennion
Top: Michael Winters (Captain Shotover) and Alexandra Tavares (Ellie Dunn)
Middle: Stephen Pelinski (Hector Hushabye) and Suzanne Bouchard (Lady Ariadne
Utterword)
