8 p.m. July 16-18
George Bernard Shaw’s play You Never Can Tell has the subtitle A Pleasant Play. And it is a pleasant play now getting a pleasant production by Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park. This 1898 intellectual-romantic comedy engages the mind more than the funny bone, while the Water Stage’s plastic seats engage the gluteus maximus for the play’s nearly three-hour running time. A Shavian comedy isn’t unusual for OSP. The company regularly programs non-Bard plays by playwrights from the sixteenth or seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. It’s a nice break for OSP and for audiences, and the plays they stage are not likely to be presented by other city theater companies.
You Never Can Tell involves an unexpected family reunion of a husband and wife and their grown children after an eighteen-year estrangement. It happens in an English seaside resort, and the characters come from the professional class. How much this production engages audience members will vary, but what it has going for it are some fine performances by capable actors. Robert Pittenridge designed the handsome costumes, although some of the men’s suits look anachronistically twentieth century.
Directed by D. Lance Marsh, the play features an ensemble cast, so who’s your favorite is up for discussion. Let’s start with Andi Dema, who two weeks ago was playing Ali Hakim down the street in Lyric’s Oklahoma!. He shows wobbly knees and strong backbone as Valentine, a dentist (yes, a dentist) in love. He’s infatuated with the older sister of eighteen-year-old twins Philip and Dolly. Jordan Jacobs and Hannah McCue play the twins as endearing knuckleheads. Philip is especially proud of his vast knowledge, at age eighteen, of human nature. You wouldn’t know from watching the play that Philip and Dolly are twins, although you would know they’re cut from the same cloth. I consulted the script to verify their siblinghood.
Hal Kohlman and Judith Midyett spar as the long-estranged parents. They are experienced actors who bring authenticity and substance to the roles. Samantha Behen plays the older sister and inamorata of Valentine.
Walter, a waiter in the Marine Hotel, where most of the action takes place, must have been a favorite of Shaw. He’s the underclass character who’s smarter and more humane than all the swells combined. Michael Gibbons gives a fine performance in the role.
And Jon Clothier plays a bellowing Queen’s Counsel named Bohun who’s brought in to adjudicate a dispute between the parents. Bohun also has a surprising relationship with another character in the play. Clothier gives the production a shot of energy it needs in the fourth act.
An int-rom-com such as You Never Can Tell doesn’t evoke gales of laughter. Theatergoers may appreciate this OSP production more than they like it.
