Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, MA
www.barringtonstageco.org
through August 30, 2015
by Shera Cohen
 |
| Photo by Kevin Sprague |
Achieving high ranking status on the numerous lists of Best
Screwball Comedies is “His Girl Friday.” The important characteristic of this
film genre is lead female vs lead male. The smart, sassy, and sexy woman plays
offense to the bright, bold, and buff man’s defense in what quickly becomes
verbal warfare at its funniest.
Soon the game reverses offense/defense, then again, to the audience’s
delight. Revving the already fast paced banter up a few notches, and Barrington
Stage’s “His Girl Friday” is the epitome of screwball.
Playwright John Guare morphs the original scripts for
“Friday” with “The Front Page” to pen a comedy that defies criticism of any
importance. Julianne Boyd moves her large cast (some in double roles) smoothly
and slickly when required, other times bumbling and buffoonish on the large,
well-crafted set of a courthouse’s press room. Every detail in this large room is
perfectly designed for the era.
The year is 1939 at the cusp of WWII, when most people in
Chicago are slow to recognize the fate of Europe, the world, and the U.S. (in
that order). A serious story gives the play its subject matter full of racism,
isolationism, ignorance. Important questions run throughout the play -- what is
the truth, who defines it, and how do newspaper men report the “facts”?
Barrington “regular” Christopher Innvar presents our
erstwhile hero Walter with charm and bravado, as a cunning man with not only a
nose for news, but his whole being. He eats, drinks, and sleeps it. No wonder
his wife divorced him. Even though Walter is a cad, we like him and Innvar.
Mark H. Dold -- another regular (Barrington boasts the best
actors in the Berkshires) -- portrays Walter’s antithesis as mama’s boy Bruce.
This intense actor, so wonderful in dramatic roles, can play comedy too! In
what could have been a cliched role, Dold and Boyd have put every comedic
nuance in the character’s words, face, and body, all of which make him a
"real" person. We miss Bruce when he’s not onstage.
The boys are very good, but Jane Pfitsch (screwball heroine
news gal Hildy) commands the show. Pfitsch looks and sounds exactly as Hildy
should be. The actress and her character are the glue that hold the plot and
sub-plot together. Hildy is a sharp woman, seemingly all business -- one of the
boys. At the same time, Pfitsch graces Hildy with a hidden softness that there
is no doubt she loves Walter. The actress is new to Barrington -- let’s hope
she stays.
