PROVINCETOWN — When Molière’s “The School for Wives” premiered in Paris on Christmas 1662, it was found “wanting in sound morality and undermining the principles of religion.”
Whatever — it remains a funny story, and Shakespeare on the Cape tells it well. This is a highly professional troupe founded by former students from the University of Minnesota’s Guthrie Theater program. Molière’s players toured the French provinces for 11 years before becoming a smash hit at the court of Louis XIV. Shakespeare on the Cape, in its fourth year here, is, happily, on a much faster track.
On opening night, the company actually took advantage of the in-your-lap tight quarters of the Schoolhouse Gallery to show us a triumph of stage presence. In comedy, it’s especially tempting fate to work close up. But here the company’s training and stage discipline carry it off.
Elliot Eustis plays the scheming husband, Arnolphe. He’s on stage just about constantly, a near-impossible demand for comedy lead, but Eustis has the talent and stamina to manage it. Not only has he mastered pace and sets it for the cast, he’s been well directed by Eric Powell Holm, co-founder of the company.
The Schoolhouse performance space is a bare room with about 60 chairs arranged along three sides. Acting broad and bumptious farce, from lapel-gripping distance at eye level in a small room, is working the high wire without a net. Only scarier. But this young rep company carries it off with sheer energy in body language and voice along with what was obviously meticulous rehearsal.
Explosive performances are turned in by Daniel Jimenez as the lover and Ariel Dumas as the servant girl. You’ll want to remember those names so someday you can say, “Why, I saw him/her before …”
The bride-to-be is played in drag with a comic touch that nearly breaks up the show by Ben Griessmeyer. He is joined with smoothly professional performances by Jake Ford, Amanda Fuller and Whitney Hudson.
Even if you’re neither a comedy buff nor married you’ll want to go see what a professional company can do when it masters the art. The company has 11 more performances scheduled for the Schoolhouse Gallery and three performances slated for August at Cotuit Center for the Arts.
ON STAGE
What: “The School for Wives”
- Written by: Molière
- Presented by: Shakespeare on the Cape
- When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Tuesday and July 26; Aug. 2, 9, 12, 16, 23 and 30; Sept. 6 and 13
- Where: WOMR/Schoolhouse Gallery, 494 Commercial St., Provincetown
- Tickets: $28 adult, $23 students with ID
- Reservations: 508-487-7377
- When: 8 p.m. July 15, 22 and 29
- Where: Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28
- Tickets: $20 adults, $10 students with ID
- Reservations: 508-428-0669
[The SOTC Blog] 