The Perfect Wedding: A delightful farce which excels in the comedic
Thousand Island Playhouse’s production of Robin Hawdon’s farce Perfect Wedding (directed by Krista Jackson) at the Springer Theatre marks not only the return of live theatre in much of Ontario but also the 40th anniversary of the playhouse itself. As a production, Perfect Wedding is emblematic of the kind of enjoyable, feel-good comedies that TIP specializes in. The light-hearted nature of it meshes well with the playhouse’s reputation as a destination theatre. A play focusing on a wedding day gone wrong, Perfect Wedding wraps up questions of identity and infidelity into an off-the-cuff formula that inevitably ensues in a chain of misunderstandings.
The play begins with a man named Bill (Nathan Howe) waking up in a hotel room bed next to a mysterious woman named Judy (Rachel VanDuzer). While it is quickly established that this occurrence is the result of a drunken encounter during the previous night, the stakes are heightened by the fact that it is the morning of Bill’s wedding to day to Rachel (Reena Jolly). Things go from bad to worse once he realizes that the space for their liaison is meant to be his and Rachel’s honeymoon suite. As Bill hastily beckons Rachel to leave, his best man Tom (Dan Mousseau) appears. With the danger of Rachel arriving soon, he involves Tom in a ploy to pass the woman off as the latter’s girlfriend; a hotel cleaning lady named Julie (Jenny Weisz), however, is mistaken by Tom to be Judy when she comes in to investigate the room. What follows are hilarious mishaps and contrived stories, until the truth is eventually revealed.
Each of the actors in this production do well in enacting physical humour for maximum effect, eliciting plenty of laughter from the audience. While a British accent can be hard to maintain for North American actors, Mousseau and Weisz do an especially convincing job of it. Weisz’s character is delightful as an innocent bystander who gets swept up in the madness of the intrigue, with her incredulity at the whole situation being easy to relate to. Rachel’s boisterous mother Daphne, portrayed by Alana Bridgewater, also acts as a humorous intruder into the younger people’s drama with her busybody personality.
To be sure, there are moments when the play addresses very real concerns of unfaithfulness and mistrust among friends, with Judy’s identity turning out to have ramifications for everyone involved. Yet, as with most comedies, these issues are transformed into pleasant jokes, reminding viewers that the purpose of the play is indeed good fun – and that it is.
On the technical front, the set design especially shines. The re-created hotel room by John Dinning is elaborate and features no less than four doors that are amply used for rushing in and out of. Although there might have been more of a clear demarcation between the bedroom and living room sections of the suite (which are treated by the actors as being separate spaces), it still serves its purpose capably for this production.
Perfect Wedding runs in the Springer Theatre at the Thousand Islands Playhouse until July 10. For information and tickets, see Perfect Wedding – Thousand Islands Playhouse (1000islandsplayhouse.com)
Author: Robin Hawdon
Cast:
Daphne – Alana Bridgewater
Bill – Nathan Howe
Rachel – Reena Jolly
Tom – Dan Mousseau
Judy – Rachel VanDuzer
Julie – Jenny Weisz
Creative Team:
Director – Krista Jackson
Set & Costume Designer – John Dinning
Lighting Designer – Echo Zhou
Sound Designer – Richard Feren
Stage Manager – Scott Spider
Assistant Stage Manager –Alysse Szatkowski