If, as they say, playing comedy is harder than dying, then think what playing farce must be like. It’s murder.
Just ask the 11 persons now engaged in the high-class slapstick of “Scapin” at the American Theater Company. Producing this kind of light entertainment is hard labor, and if it misses by just a second or two, it’s down and out and in the dust.
Director Brian Russell’s production has several such misses; but it also has enthusiasm, nerve and guts on its side, and in the end, if it’s not exactly a knee-slapper all the way, it has enough tricks and treats to produce goodwill smiles all around.
The basic framework for the show is Moliere’s “Les Fourberies de Scapin (The Tricks of Scapin),” not a success when it was first staged in 1671. Since then, however, it has been revived frequently as a vehicle in which a comic actor, portraying the mischievous servant in the title role, can strut his stuff. Jim Dale had a hit in the ’70s in a version called “Scapino,” and the gifted theatrical clown Bill Irwin put his own stamp on the material in 1995 with this “Scapin.”
The ATC edition uses the adaptation by Irwin and Mark O’Donnell and casts Chicago actor Jim Ortlieb as the scamp Scapin. Ortlieb doesn’t have Irwin’s moves, but he does have an invaluable sense of timing that can turn an amusing line into a hilarious one. Tripping about in high heels, a red dress and brunette wig, he asserts, “I’m not in drag.” And then, after a perfectly drawn-out pause and a deadpan glance, he wickedly adds, “I’m in disguise.”
Ortlieb, small and wiry, also has the benefit of a terrific sidekick in the jumbo-size Dan Ruben, who portrays his simple-minded accomplice Silvestre. As two scheming servants who bring young lovers together and old geezers to humiliation, they make a neat pair, leading their fellow ensemble members through slapstick routines that were old when funny things were happening on the way to the forum.
There are some ’90s jokes about the National Endowment for the Arts and other matters; and ATC has added a few local gags at its own expense. But the essence of the show remains in the good old standbys of miserly parents, innocent/dumb lovers, sly slaves and unbelievable coincidences.
Some of the players who have luck in translating these ancient forms are Lynn House as an uncontrollably giggling ingenue, David Pease as a man of many wiggles and Tom Seymour as an earnest twit of a lover.
Rick Paul’s scenic design, a street before two houses, is a bright, witty cartoon of a traditional commedia dell’arte setting; and Joe Dempsey and Ed Kross, though their routines are dreadful, are nothing if not brave in a variety of zany supporting roles.
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“Scapin”
When: Through Dec. 28
Where: American Theater Company, 3855 N. Lincoln Ave.
Phone: 773-929-1031
