'Farce' a fun bedroom romp

By RACHEL KLINEDINST
Collegian Arts Writer

Sleep isn't the only thing that goes on in the bedroom. There's reading, eating, arguing, laughing and of course, sex. Put them all together and the result is Bedroom Farce.

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, Bedroom Farce is a zany British comedy featuring outrageous misunderstandings and plenty of sexual allusions.

The University Resident Theatre Company's production, running at the Playhouse Theatre through Feb. 25, reveals a first-hand glimpse of what goes on behind the closed doors of the bedroom.

Centered within the confines of a single evening, the play's action unfolds around the lives of four married couples -- comically illustrating their joys, fears and blunders through the use of a solitary scene: the bedroom.

Despite difficulties of the fixed set, consisting of three different bedrooms on stage at the same time, URTC guest director Eberle Thomas manages to transcend the necessities of elaborate scene changes through efficiency. Every inch of space is utilized; every prop, from books to window shades, is used to its fullest potential.

The cast is also amazingly well-adapted to the unique stage. With action divided into three sections of the stage and sometimes occurring in several places simultaneously, the actors nonetheless manage to make each scene come alive in an entertaining and believable way.

Dramaturg Lewis Magruder explains in the program notes that farce is characterized by its ability to evoke in the audience a feeling of superiority over the "fools" onstage.

True to its farcical nature, the play works not because of its deep insights into married relationships, but rather as a result of its sheer ridiculousness. The characters are exaggerated stereotypes and the humor is bawdy, yet the chemistry among the cast makes it somehow come together in a magical way.

The characters may be fools, but they are lovable fools and ones the observer can relate to in some small way.

Jessica Raab is wonderful as Susannah, a timid and dependent woman who fears she will lose her husband to another woman because she is no longer desirable. As a pathetic, even neurotic victim of low self-esteem, Raab delivers a performance that is both touching and amusing, spending a great deal of her time onstage reassuring herself by chanting, "I am confident, I am not unconfident. I am still attractive. People still like me."

It is Matthew Bretz, however, who steals the show in his role as Malcolm. Along with his wife, Kate (Heather Landry), Bretz provides a level of childlike foolishness that brings to mind a Laurel and Hardy routine.

Their interactions are physical, reflecting a spiteful relationship that is revealed through a series of pranks, such as playing hide-and-seek with each other's shoes or engaging in a playful battle with shaving cream.

In contrast to such public displays of bedroom conduct, there is Delia, a socially correct and somewhat old-fashioned woman played by Barbara Redmond. Throughout the play, Redmond gracefully reminds the other characters of the necessity of proper appearances.

"You can tell a great deal from people's bedrooms," she knowingly reminds her husband.

If nothing else, Bedroom Farce offers proof of that statement, painting a comical and magical portrait of what life is really like behind closed bedroom doors.