Drama Society goes green.
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from March 1994.
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Let's get it out of the way in the first paragraph: the one and only drawback to the current Cayman Drama Society production, Lettice and Lovage, is its name.
Is "Lettice" the obscure spelling of an edible plant, used to balance the straightforwardly spelled but unfamiliar synonym for parsley? If so, who wants to see a play about green vegetables, even if it is a comedy?
But if Lettice is the woman played so compellingly by Gabrielle Wheaton, why isn't Jacqueline Caunt's counterpoint character named Lovage instead of Lotte? Certainly the two women deserve equal billing. When they first meet they seem as different as chalk and cheese one the personification of imaginative romanticism, the other the epitome of bureaucratic efficiency. The whole premise for the play is the conflict between them and how they learn about themselves and each other because of it.
The result is not the comedy of slapstick or caricature. If you insist on pratfalls and pies in the face, don't bother seeing this production. But if you love language cadences and subtle word play, "Lettice and Lovage" is for you.
Dialogue is certainly the main vehicle for humour, and while most of us are not so articulate in ordinary conversation, it is a tribute to the actresses that we believe they are.
At the moment of greatest crisis, the element of comedy arises not from the fact of one woman hitting the other in the head with a sword, but from the incongruity that it made perfect sense for her to have done so, given what we have learned about them both. This is adult humour in the term's best sense. One or the other woman is on stage at all times and the play's success depends on them, but the rest of the cast does not detract. Most notable is Roland Stacey. His lawyer role is small, but his pacing is essential as he must transform himself from the model of propriety to a marching, drumthumping, soundeffectproducing participant in Lettice's "reenactment of the crime".
Other notable support comes from Jeff Parker and team for set construction and design, providing three different backgrounds. The bi-level set for Lettice's apartment is so well done, one wishes more people would come knocking at her door.
Director Tony Osborn deserves full marks for daring to take on an atypical show, but it hardly seems possible that he chose the script and then invited women to audition. Jacqueline Caunt and Gabrielle Wheaton make the play so much their own, it is easy to believe he chose it with them in mind.
Then again, believing is what good theatre is all about.
