Scapin Showcases Clown Bill Irwin
Hyacinth (A.C.T. Master of Fine Arts Program student Ashley Wickett, left) and Zerbinette (A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen) eagerly await the result of Scapin’s machinations.
Photo by Kevin Berne.
Photo by Kevin Berne.
American Conservatory Theater brazenly tickles with broad physical humor in their current production of Moliere’s French farce Scapin. Since the title character is played by San Francisco’s Pickle Family Circus clown Bill Irwin this is a sane approach. Irwin also adapted, along with Mark O’Donnell, the original Seventeenth Century play, and he directed it. It’s no surprise that Irwin’s antics dominate the stage.
Irwin’s script calls for two named musicians off the stage where they can be seen and interact with the players. Here on keyboard and percussion in one of the house box seats, Randall Craig as George and Keith Terry as Fred also partake in some of the stage relationships. Comically fast paced action takes place on a cartoonish, vaguely Alpine set by Erik Flatmo. Delving through themes of mistaken identities, calculated deceit and romance, the eleven characters include the requisite fathers with sons and daughters, two pairs of young lovers, and two Gendarmes (Keith Pinto and Ben Johnson) armed with floppy rubber truncheons.
The actors liked it.
The lively slapstick nature of the entire show is typified in the scene where the Gendarmes in Beaver Bauer’s whimsical and specifically characterizing costumes enter to beat Sylvestre (Jud Wiliford) with their limp clubs when he refers to a time “before my brush with the law.”
The physical puns permeate the action and dialogue. Irwin acts with gleeful sympathy for the numerous dirty deeds of his character, and he is almost constantly in motion. His adaptation modernizes the language with some non-French, like “I’m a little lost here.”
His supporting cast is ready for his exuberant commedia dell’arte. They eagerly and breathlessly keep up with him. Skilled mime Geoff Hoyle as Geronte, father of two, worked with Irwin at Pickle, so he knows what to expect. ACT Core Company member Steven Anthony Jones as Argante, father of a boy and a girl, artfully uses his bluster to cover up his miscomprehension of Scapin’s tricks. Jud Wiliford as Sylvestre, Valet to Argantes’ son Octave, who is played by Greg Wallace, another Core Member, respond to Scapin with their own brands of enthusiastic humor.
Laughter rings out.
American Conservatory Theater’s reimagining of this antique comedy has delightfully retained much of the structure of the original French play while adding a purely American interpretation: vaudeville. The gags, some totally unexpected and some deliberately corny, come fast and furious as Scapin schemes fiendishly and comically to seek money and revenge, spinning out a story of a dark heart reaching a happy ending. And at the finale, Irwin still holds the stage, even when being at the end of the bow line.
Laughter rings out.
American Conservatory Theater’s reimagining of this antique comedy has delightfully retained much of the structure of the original French play while adding a purely American interpretation: vaudeville. The gags, some totally unexpected and some deliberately corny, come fast and furious as Scapin schemes fiendishly and comically to seek money and revenge, spinning out a story of a dark heart reaching a happy ending. And at the finale, Irwin still holds the stage, even when being at the end of the bow line.
Scapin plays through October 23 at American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary Street, San Francisco). Tickets ($23 to $88) are available on line at www.act-sf.org or by phone at 415.749.2228.