"Round and Round the Garden" 1970s British backyard farce about marriage opened at ACT

Round and Round the Garden by Alan Ayckbourn opened at ACT's Curran Theater on Union Square in San Franciso with a refreshing lighthearted look at middle class English marriage set in the 1970s. Mercifully it’s not as crude as Benny Hill but not as wacky as Monty Python; not loud and gritty like the East Enders or sophisticated, droll and charming like As Time Goes By. More working class actually like Keeping Up Appearances with the tarty sister in law and the elderly grandfather upstairs. John Rando directed the ACT play, suitable for public television.

It's also good-hearted and almost wholesome family entertainment, like ACT's production of the well-meaning tone deaf diva Florence Jenkins.

Tone deaf diva touches and eviscerates

Above, Norman (Manoel Felciano) and Ruth (René Augesen) discuss their marriage. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Round and Round the Garden slideshow below.

It’s more juvenile in the sexual farce aspect as nothing is ever consummated, just attempted in earnest like awkward high school machinations. I was only in high school in the 1970s but I do remember the long thick layers of blond Farah Fawcett hair, as worn by the liberated character Ruth played masterfully by Rene Augesen. Rene at first seemed to have a bit of her tarty southern drawl oozing into her British middle class accent, something left over from Caucasian Chalk Circle. It was a joy to see her reinvent herself as a core actor with ACT.

Rene sounded more like a Brit as the play went on, demonstrating particularly well timed, well delivered dry and impatient comments throughout the second Act. She also wrestles with a folding lounge chair that like the couples seems to twist comically in her hands refusing to straighten up and function correctly. Dan Hiatt as Tom the socially inept veterinarian proved an effective foil. Tom contrues her attempts to raise his consciousness and bring out his liberated side as a declaration of her passion for him. He's the middle aged veterinarian in glasses with a secret crush on the good girl busy tending her garden, who in turn maintains a secret passion for shaggy dog librarian Norman.

Stop molesting the cat

Tom can't seem to get the cat out of the tree so to speak. He incessantly calls out for it (p-u-s-s-y) while looking up over the audience, as if repeating himself will work better than trying something different. San Francisco is probably a bit too hip for this. However it's not offensive and his character is so academic and innocuous in his brown baggy and cuffed courderoys and brown shoes . . . yet the running gag doesn't get a laugh and it's just repetitive. It is funny though when Annie the cat's owner finally tires of Tom using the cat as an excuse to see her and yells "Stop molesting the cat".

Costumes and lots of hair

The trio of women formed a sisterhood so I also thought of Charlie’s Angels. Lydia Tanji the costume designer put the women in flat sensible pumps, pantyhose and shirt dresses, Marcia Pizzo’s Sarah’s in particular with an orange paisley but tailored, flight attendant sensibility. Hair pinned up in contrast to Ruth’s flowing layers or Annie’s sensible shoulder length straight cut, Marcia’s Sarah did a good job of seeming repressed. She in particular seemed to need to let her hair down, in need of the liberating roll in the brambles, during which she demonstrated a certain command of her panties after they were challenged by Norman.

Sarah’s cuckolded hubby Reg wears the apron in the marriage, wielded deftly by Anthony Rusco. He drags heavy luggage rather than carrying it; He has no expertise in car repair.

Sporty looking Delia MacDougall makes a believable good sport as sister Annie. She’s the sensible gardening sister in her jeans and unstyled hair who finally puts on a dress when she decides to have her naughty weekend one way or another.

Manoel Felciano’s Norman seemed to fit into his role like one wears a favorite old sweater, slouching about comfortably particularly in his backyard drunk scene. The concept of an assistant librarian with an unexplainable way with women has it’s appeal. It’s as if he’s going postal while remaining innocuous, channeling the sexual energy and fantasies inspired by books not male buddies. We see nobody encouraging Norman, he’s just taking his opportunities as he finds them. That he is only acting out helps maintain that sense of innocence, he never does come off as a letch, more like a schoolboy.

Inside the garden gate

After all, this is just the bucolic backyard in the English countryside, not some swinging James Bondian urban or jet set location. Ralph Funicello as the scenic designer created the summer backyard complete with the cat refusing to come out of it’s tree until all were gone. Sound designer Jake Rodriguez created the running gag’s cat sounds as well as birdsong. Indeed the yard has a birdbath, a rusty bicycle, a croquet mallet; the two story brick house stands reassuringly with generations of ivy clinging. The porch light bathes the lawn warmly and gently in the summer evening.

I left ACT’s Curran Theater on Union Square feeling cheerful and re-energized.

Tickets run $17 to $82. The Mason-O’Farrell garage around the corner offers a parking special for ten dollars if you show your ticket stub.

Celebrity sighting: Vigil's Marco Barricelli, who co-starred with Olympia Dukakis, in the orchestra section of the audience Wednesday night.

For more information: www.ACT-SF.org

For more articles by this writer, check out the San Francisco opera column: http://www.examiner.com/x-2366-SF-Opera-Examiner

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