SIMPLICITY. To 8 November.

London

SIMPLICITY
by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

Orange Tree Theatre. To 8 November 2003
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat Sat 4pm
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

Where, but at the Orange Tree, could such an obscure piece be given so expert and elegant a production?Simplicity is simplified from a French comedy current in the English play's day, the 1730s. Lady Mary may have been no Marivaux (whose Le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard is her original), but she could fashion a story and garnish it with wit.

The programme suggests a practical purpose, for this local (Twickenham, in the age of Alexander Pope) playwright wanted to give her daughter some marriage guidance counselling, suggesting a young woman take an active role in choosing a suitable life-partner.

Bellinda's set for a blind match with young Gaymore. She's encourages to swap clothes and roles with her maid so as to observe her suitor from a more detached viewpoint. What she doesn't know - unlike her father and the audience all round her - is that her suitor's similarly swapped with his footman.

The two servants meet, putting on fal-de-rol manners for the supposed benefit of the upper-class other, while the simply-clad gentry mix it in the corridors with natural politeness and respect.

Deception and gradual undeception provide comedy. There's fun in the servants' manners - Rebekah Staton's Lucy moves from poite smile to steely directness of feeling when unobserved, while Tom McKay's footman comes on after his master, an irregularly powdered-face booby full of ridiculous over-expression and gesture.

Whatever she was in terms of realising the potential of her fine women, Lady Mary was no social scientist exploring feelings below-stairs. More warmth's found in their betters' natural courtesy - both Octavia Walters and Gyuri Sarossy are exemplary in the reserved expression of feeling.

It's in the later acts the action turns from fun at the mistaken suppositions into an analysis of feelings. Bellinda discovers the truth before Gaymore (frank fellow, he tells her). Here the process of emotional realisation is well-charted by Auriol Smith's high-energy but considered production.

With Terrence Haediman's father enjoying the joke's consequences while appreciating its serious purpose, this is a revival as strong as it is unexpected.

Sir John Hearty: Terrence Hardiman
Ned: Perri Snowden
Gaymore: Gyuri Sarossy
William: Tom McKay
Bellinda: Octavia Walters
Lucy: Rebekah Staton
Footman: Kevin Leach

Director: Auriol Smith
Designer: Sam Dowson
Lighting: John Harris
Dance arranger: John Dowson

2003-10-30 18:07:56