Two shows recently opened both set in the 1930s. Kavinoky Theater regifts audiences with another staging of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter, repeating successful previous mountings of 1991 and 2001. By contrast to Cabaret, Present Laughter is a cool comedy in which you’d be hard pressed to tell that there was a single problem in the world of 1939 beyond the swank London apartment where the action is set.
Time And Again: Present Laughter.
The title of Coward’s comedy originates from a bit of verse from another English comedy about frantic attempts at romantic complications, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
What is love? ’tis not hereafter; Present mirth hath present laughter;
What’s to come is still unsure: In delay there lies no plenty;
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty, Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
Shakespeare presciently sums up Coward’s themes, a reminder to enjoy all that does not last forever… pleasure, youth and even love… whatever love might be.
At the age fifty (plus a few), actor Garry Essendine can still dazzle pretty young things. He’s a maypole around whom friends and lovers circle. Ah, if love were all. Essendine is oppressed by company but lonely when he does not have an audience. In this version, the pressing but unspoken question is how much longer Garry can keep this behavior up?
During Present Laughter complications delivered to Essendine’s Sloane Square apartment by his ex-wife, his producing partners and by adoring fans. He meets his match when a friend’s wife, already the mistress of yet another friend, sets her sights on Essendine.
Coward has famously quipped that, “Present Laughter is a very light comedy and was written with the sensible object of providing me with a bravura part.” In selecting to revive this play yet again, David Lamb meets Coward on those terms. Lamb and others repeating roles do so with fresh aplomb. Eileen Dugan, Kathleen Betsko and Gerry Maher as Essendine’s put upon staff, his secretary, housekeeper and valet, respectively, mine nuggets of laughter throughout the evening. Dugan displays a deadly deadpan, delivering seemingly innocuous comments with neat acidity.
Those new to the cast are equally enjoyable. Lisa Vitrano plays the sleekly, glamorous Joanna, a sexual huntress who sends Essendine on the run. Anne Gayley’s staging builds nicely to Vitrano’s second act entrance. The seduction is nicely played in a cat-and-mouse fashion. Vitrano as confident as if she had a handful of aces and Lamb bluffing as if he were holding nothing but deuces. Things unravel when, despite her overnight victory, Joanna must hide while a parade of unexpected guests arrives the next morning.
Many suppose what this Present Laughter might have been like if Coward had populated the play with gay men instead of females as Essendine’s lovers, supposing it would be truer to Coward’s nature. It is interesting to ponder and more interesting to figure out who amongst the Who’s Who of Coward’s friends might have inspired these characters.
More critical is why the one character in the play likely to be gay is played without any sexuality but as an apish fool (not that there is anything wrong with being an apish fool). The character of Roland Maul, an aspiring playwright, is so obviously in love with Essendine and with more than his theatrical talents. A sexual imbroglio of a different flavor would not be out of line for the play or for an actor such as Essendine. However, if Roland is to be played as an apish fool Joe Demerly is quite good at it. He scrambles over the stylish furniture and practically climbs the art deco walls of David King’s very impressive set, pulled from storage from the previous run.
All in all, the comedy is more frothy in Kavinoky’s 2010 version of Present Laughter. Interestingly, the truths underlying the humor seem more affecting than ever before. Perhaps the biggest folly in this romance is the attempt to align love, mirth, loyalty, sex and constancy.
Who might like Present Laughter: Present Laughter presents laughter delightfully and efficiently. You’ll enjoy the proceedings all the more if you if listen between the lines of polite dialogue for the outrageous thoughts therein.
Did you seen Present Laughter?
Tell Buffalo Rising readers what you thought.
___ Must see for all!
___ I liked it. You might, too.
___ Well, I liked it.
___ Not for me.
Present Laughter (through December 5) starring Kathleen Betsko Yale, Joseph Demerly, Eileen Dugan, Josephine Hogan, David Lamb, David Lundy, Gerry Maher, Michele Marie Roberts, Robert Rutland, Tess Spangler and Lisa Vitrano in a comedy by Noel Coward. Directed by Anne Gayley for Kavinoky Theatre; 320 Porter Avenue (on the D’Youville College campus); (716) 829-7668) or KavinokyTheatre.com.
Image: Everybody Loves Garry: The cast of Present Laughter.