The Learned Ladies Media Coverage
Clever comedy wins with a creative cast
- by Ted Shaw, Star Entertainment Writer (Appeared in The Windsor Star March 11, 2005)
ONSTAGE: Cast members Kelly Ridley, left, Tracey Atin and Devin Hughes, from the Korda Productions stage show The Learned Ladies, rehearse at the Walkerville Arts Centre. Star photo: Scott Webster.
A little learning may be a dangerous thing, but lots of it is wildly infectious, as is the case with Richard Wilbur's brilliant translation of Moliere's The Learned Ladies.
The Learned Ladies was a curious choice for Windsor's Korda Productions, given earlier shows like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Hobbit.
But it confirms Korda as among Windsor's most innovative and adventurous theatre companies. Moliere's 17th-century French satire, as viewed by an American Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Richard Wilbur, would scare off most community theatre groups.
It's the kind of challenging work normally tackled by professional companies, like Stratford, or academic institutions.
But Korda and director Jeff Marontate have jumped fully clothed into the spirit of the piece. It is a riot of wordplay and splashy colour and the only problem is not enough people will get to see it. Apart from school productions, there are just two public performances on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Capitol Theatre's intimate 125-seat Daniel Patrick Kelly Theatre.
It is a portable production, however, and presumably easy to reassemble in the future. Dan Nolin's wonderfully zany cartoon panels depicting a 17th-century manor are among the show's selling points. He also fills the stage with boxes of candies and other things disguised as books.
Kelly Ridley's clever costume designs are dominated by the women's gowns, which are festooned with mathematical equations, Greek letters and Latin phrases.
Marontate and the cast have, with minor exceptions, done justice to Wilbur's play. Only after several minutes do you realize you're listening to rhyming couplets.
That's a credit to the writer, of course. Wilbur produced several of these translations of French masterpieces for Broadway and college stages, including The Learned Ladies, which was adapted from Moliere's original, Les femmes savantes, in 1978.
It's also a credit to the cast, chief among whom is Devin Hughes as foppish Trissotin, the poet in yellow hosiery and a fountain of fake hair who struts about in delusions of grandeur. Hughes brings the audience to tears of laughter every time he appears or opens his mouth.
Right behind him, so to speak, is Tracey Atin, as the equally deluded Philaminte. Draped in a gown full of mathematical equations, her character aspires to advanced learning, but can't see falsehood when it looks her in the eye.
On the other side of the scale, there's sweet and passionate Henriette, her daughter, intelligently played by Danielle Boissoneault [sic], who wants nothing more than to follow her heart.
And there's Chrysale, the henpecked husband, handled nicely by James Neely.
Kelly Ridley, performing double duty as both costumer and actor, needs to be more conniving and forceful in her portrayal of Armande, the other daughter. She is too naturalistic in the role. Gil Percy, as Chrysale's brother, has the same problem.
This is one play that cries out for overacting.
Christopher Lawrence Menard is good as the suitor, Clitandre, and Clare Kilpatrick turns in an amusing portrayl [sic] of dimwitted Belise. Katie MacTavish makes the most of her brief appearance as a servant girl.
Rounding out the cast are Adam Giles as a servant, Davydd Cook as a scholar, Ryan Connelly as a valet, and Mitch Snaden as a court official.