Some kids are good at baseball, soccer or football. Others excel in music or art. Some are all about academic performance. And then there’s Jeffrey – who is “polite.” As he explains it, “some kids have play clothes; I have reading clothes.”
“Mrs. Mannerly,” by Steubenville, Ohio native Jeffrey Hatcher, is a disarming, wickedly witty comedy that opened this weekend at Northville’s Tipping Point Theatre.
Directed by Quintessa Gallinat, the three actors who people this play bring razor-sharp timing and precise body-language to the service of hilarity. Ten-year-old Jeffrey is played by the accomplished actor Peter Prouty; the elegant Jennifer Weil plays his etiquette teacher, Mrs. Mannerly; and every other character (students, parents, grandparents and floozies) is played by the inexhaustible Tracy L. Spada.
This delightful comedy is set in 1967 and told from the perspective of a grown Jeffrey remembering Mrs. Mannerly’s etiquette class – a rite of passage through which generations of Steubenville’s finest have already passed. Intrigued by the fact that no one has ever achieved a perfect score on Mrs. Mannerly’s challenging final exam, Jeffrey is determined to claim the distinction at all costs.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that this might be a good play to bring your impressionable tykes or grandkids to see. Little Jeffrey and his fellow students routinely curse like sailors when quoting the overheard conversations of Steubenville adults. And there are double entendres and implied adult situations you really don’t want to explain to anyone not old enough to already get the joke. In any event, you’ll be too busy laughing.
The patter is clever and quickly paced. For example, when Mrs. Mannerly is teaching table manners, she asks the students how they should best handle the aspic. One child gasps and Mrs. Mannerly, without missing a beat explains, “it’s one word, dear, not two.”
The punchy dialog is punctuated with references that anyone sentient in the late ‘60s will appreciate – mostly toTV shows we watched as children. Jeffrey happily observes that F-Troop is just like McHale’s Navy but with Indians. He solves problems by speculating what Jim West and Artemus Gordon of Wild, Wild West would do. And he even goes trick-or-treating in a wheelchair, dressed as his favorite paralyzed detective, Ironside.
As little Jeffrey methodically picks off the competition, he finally pits himself in a contest of wills against Mrs. Mannerly herself. But ultimately, Jeffrey must decide if winning the ultimate etiquette prize, no matter who gets hurt in the process, is really the polite thing to do.
“Mrs. Mannerly” is a refreshing comedy and this production is highly recommended. It runs through May 5, 2013, with performances at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and matinees at 3 p.m. on Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays. A special matinee performance has been added on Wednesday April 24, at 3 p.m. Tickets can be reserved by calling the Tipping Point Theatre Box Office at 248-347-0003. The theatre is located at 361 E. Cady Street, in lovely Northville. For more information, visit the Tipping Point Theatre website.
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