The Rivals

David Schweizer's fantasyland production of The Rivals (to 10/30) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan pulls all the right strings in Center Stage's season opener which began with a splash last night (10/5) for new Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah and the City of Baltimore. With Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake drawing back the curtain on the 2011-2012 season, patrons filed through the lobby doors to begin a new era at Maryland's State Theater.

As many times as you may have seen The Rivals, I doubt you'll have confronted anything as wondrous or animated as Mr. Schweizer's staging of this Restoration classic (1775). The words and period furnishing are all pretty much there, but the sieve they've been pushed through will get you to think of this new world and our own in a totally different way. Starting with the uncluttered, striking powder blue set of scenic designer Caleb Wertenbaker, an array of antic characters march their way into your affections to their own tune and those supplied in the original music of Ryan Rumery and M. Florian Staab's sound. The play, of course, is famous for the introduction of Mrs. Malaprop, one of the great comic characters of the English stage, and costumer David Burdick has outdone himself here, getting her up as an aging Madame Butterfly. While he matches Mr. Wertenbaker's pastel palette for the ladies, some great statements are also made with the men, particularly a fashion conscious country squire, a mad Irish Baronet, and the male domestics. The lighting of Russell H. Champa creates an exciting visual tableau.

The plot is as complex as the stock characters - with telling surnames - are categorical. Peopled by wily servants and their foolish masters, ruled by their imperious relatives with their own view of things, and guided by a code-of-conduct that is woefully obsolete (patriarchy, honor, etc.), this literary format has been around for millennia, before Sheridan sent them up for his own times, poking fun at his own creation in a way that feels postmodernist. Everything is drawn in the extreme in the present production - amped characters, magical thinking, effusive language, cascading plot lines, and endless parody.

How to describe it? Item: Budding bluestocking Lydia Languish (an arresting Zoë Winters) has romantically conceived of a poor lover in the fictional guise of Ensign Beverley, but actually embodied by Captain Jack Absolute (Manu Narayan) to whisk her away in an elopement. Item: A gatekeeper aunt, the inimitable Mrs. Malaprop (Kristine Nielsen), is working her own correspondence con-game as Delia with a certain Sir Lucius O'Trigger (given a troglodyte turn by Evan Zes) with the connivance of Lydia's wily chambermaid Lucy (Libya Pugh) gets him to think it's really Ms. Languish to whom he's writing. (If you've thought of The Shop Around the Corner for the upper classes, you'll get a sense of the storyline.) Item: There's yet another romantic suitor on the line that Lucy's juggling - hick country squire Bob Acres (Jimmy Kieffer). Meanwhile, for sober relief, there's a subplot involving the courtship of Mr. Faulkland (Clifton Duncan) with Lydia's cousin Julia Melville (Caroline Hewitt). That's five suitors (four for Lydia - one fictional - one for Julia), two fictional correspondences, and later an arranged marriage if you're counting. When all of the shenanigans shake out there is honor to claim in the form of several duels, before the Gordian Knot is cut, and order is restored through matrimony. And there's more. Whew!

While the younger crowd sets the action in motion, it's the older generation that gives the play its bite. David Margulies as Sir Anthony Absolute and Kristine Nielsen as Mrs. Malaprop are twin forces of human nature spinning in opposite directions, one robust and volatile, the other frazzled, fuzzy, and fallacious. It is a rare treat to see two such seasoned actors grace the stage at the same time - both in total control of their diction and delivery. Mr. Margulies possesses great presence and his portrayal of Sir Anthony is spellbinding in its command of language and range of emotion. Ms. Nielsen, who built her comic resume creating Christopher Durang characters, is a revelation as Ms. Malaprop. Her facial contortions, after each infelicitous choice of word or slaughtered syntax, look straight out of the Twilight Zone.

Each of the quirky characters with few exceptions seems drunk on language, if not hypnotized. It's not so much that the words spring out of the actions, as they create them. But if speech drives women and men, it's motion that defines them. From his direction of Snow Falling on Cedars earlier this year, it's apparent that Mr. Schweizer pays a great deal of attention to movement. There, it revolved more around the ensemble. Here, it seems that he has worked with the actors to locate the center of gravity of their characters: the besotted, bobble-headed Lydia, the grunting and striding gait of Sir Lucius, Mrs. Malaprops' flinching facial twitch, Mr. Faulkland's querulous vocal and physical half-skip, and the ostentatious posturing of Bob Acres all heighten the comic effect.

The pacing is brisk at times to get this 5-Act production in at 2 hours and 40 minutes. Some of Faulkland's monologue seems rushed in places and the courtship with Ms. Melville dated - the parts are definitely wordy - but I was glad to see them retained, if only to add ballast. Captain Jack seems more tentative than you might imagine him, but then a man with such a father and lover/wife might have to walk a judicious line to happiness.

The various acting styles - directed with much emotion to the audience - are as engaging as a first person narrative. The leading voice in this regard was realized by the charmingly persuasive Danny Gavigan aided by the crafty Libya Pugh who collected on both sides of every transaction. A comedy of manners holds the mirror up to society and though the image reflected looks somehow unchanged, we're still laughing 236 years later.

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Sound check: Excessive anxiety of some of the characters is conveyed in high sound decibels.

Program notes: Outstanding as always. Center Stage's dramaturgy is the gold standard in the area.

Moment of the play: David Margulies as Sir Anthony dictating the terms of inheritance to Manu Narayan as Captain Jack. Mr. Margulies' temper is a rocket launch from steady state to 5 g's in as many seconds.

Stars of the play: 1) David Schweizer, director, delivers a sublime production with a big ensemble cast - baker's dozen - and an exceptionally creative design team, 2) David Margulies as Sir Anthony and Christine Nielsen as Mrs. Malaprop (tied) breathe new life into timeless roles, and 3) David Burdick, costumer, creates a fashion line that conforms to the play's design elements and defines the characters.

Applause meter: Standing "O," Highly recommended. A play to hit the road for.

Runtime: 2:40 w/intermission.