Theatre SC show focuses on comedy with chemistry
The Longstreet Theatre will stage its first production of 2013 tonight, Marc Camoletti’s “Boeing-Boeing,” widely renowned for being the world’s most-performed French play.
Directed by USC Professor Emeritus Richard Jennings, this bawdy and lighthearted retelling of the 1960 production stars graduate theater student Trey Hobbs playing Bernard, an architect living in Paris with three fiancées, all of whom are air hostesses. Each of them works for a different airline, so he is able to keep them all completely unaware of each other with the help of his maid, Bertha (graduate theater student Leeanna Rubin).
This is, of course, until a stroke of fate lands them all in Paris on the same night, forcing Bernard to take extreme (and comedic) measures to keep the ruse alive.
The fiancées, Gloria, Gabriellaand Gretchen, are played by Melissa Peters, Kate Dzvonik and Laurie Roberts, respectively, who are also all graduate theater students. Each has their own eccentricities and over-the-top caricature, which, though a bit excessive and out-of-place at the beginning, quickly becomes one of the highlights of the play.
Timing and chemistry also add to the humor, and both are nearly impeccable. Characters need to be quickly whisked away before another one appears, and the whole performance runs like clockwork.
graduate theater student Josiah Laubenstein plays Robert, a friend of Bernard’s who comes to stay for the weekend. He serves as a ringmaster for the whole charade, and has an acute sense of timing, knowing when to appear and disappear, all while being able to deliver his lines in the funniest way possible.
The set is also of great importance to the storyline. Designed by graduate scenic design student Meredith Paysinger, the entire play takes place inside of Bernard’s flat, which is not only beautifully decorated, but constantly changing.
Depending on which girl Bernard is entertaining, there may be different photographs, flowers and flags. The rush to change these is hilarious in itself.
Completing the set is a second story, full of rooms and doors characters can pop in and out of, creating plenty of opportunities to continue the farce.
In the end, however, it is the characters and actors themselves who shine the most, in both the strength of their personalities as well as in their comedic intuition. Though the play starts a bit slowly and almost expositorily in its first half hour, it more than overcomes this by the end, when it is dominated by nonstop action.