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‘Waiting in the Wings’: ACT Inc. uses large cast to great effect
(by Bob Wilcox - June 24, 2009)
When one enters the Fine Arts Theatre at Fontbonne University for the current ACT Inc. production, one goes through a time warp into England in 1958.
The play ACT Inc. is performing is Noel Coward’s Waiting in the Wings. The Wings is a home for actresses retired from the English stage, so it celebrates one of Coward’s favorite things, the theater. Coward cuts the sentimentality with just enough affectionate satire and cynicism to keep it from getting too sticky. The playwright was a master craftsman, shrewd at judging the proper balance of each element in his scripts.
This 1958 bubble has three acts. It also has a cast of 18. Imagine a non-musical play in today’s commercial theater with a cast of 18!
Eleven of the 18 are the residents of the Wings, actresses past the age of playing ingenues or even the mothers of ingenues. I’m surprised that our community theaters, full of folks looking for juicy roles for women of a certain age, have not produced a stream of stagings of Waiting in the Wings.
But ACT Inc. has produced it. And ACT Inc. has the women to do it.
Dorothy Davis is at the top of her game as the dear old soul whose mind wanders from decade to decade. Liz Hopefl is admirable as she bravely admits she can no longer afford her own apartment, tearfully parts with her loyal dresser (Jane Abling) and carefully maneuvers to reconcile with one of the other residents who believes she stole her man 30 years ago. That woman, played by Eleanor Mullin, is unlikeable as she carefully nurtures resentment and revenge as the injured party, until she too becomes admirable when she comes to know the truth and exhibits a more-than-generous spirit.
It’s a Noel Coward play, so it has clever lines, many of which are handed to Cindy Duggan, who knows just what to do with them. Lynn Rathbone unspools a fine broth of a brogue. All the residents of the Wings cultivate their amusing quirks, given full entertaining measure by the cast. As the resident manager of the home, Teresa Doggett gets delicious mileage from the character’s military background. Tim Grumich is warmly sympathetic as the head of the charity that runs the home. Tamara Kenny’s young and canny journalist contrasts smartly with the older women she plans to write about.
Steve Callahan directs Waiting in the Wings with his usual easy-going flair. The three-quarter-round staging allows Tim Poertner one wall, complete with fireplace and pictures of Ellen Terry and her contemporaries, in his scenic design.
• ACT Inc. will open Heroes, the next in its two-play summer repertory, in the Fontbonne theater June 26, then Waiting in the Wings returns July 10. For more information call 725-9108.
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