It had to happen sometime. Hale Centre Theatre, which had mounted very good productions of family fare for its opening two shows, has stumbled with their third production, See How They Run. With high hurdles such as a mediocre British farce of a script, performances that are generally much-too-over-the-top, and direction that avoids even the whiff of subtlety, this production may have amused the opening Saturday night audience, but it left this reviewer unengaged.
The highly unbelievable plot set in 1940s Britain involves an upright Reverend of a small town (Tom Koelbel), his willful American actress wife (April Shepherd), Miss Skillon (Andrea Pruseau), a parishioner who had designs on the Reverend before the interloper, an American Corporal who used to tour with the actress in the USO (Robert O'Mara), the actresses' Bishop uncle (Mitch Etter), a temporary Reverend coming to take over for one sermon (Bill Graham), forceful British Army Sergeant Towers (Rick Shipman), the required uppity maid (Kristina Rogers), and a nameless intruder (Jeffrey Davey). You don't need to know anything more; you can probably figure out the shenanigans from the character list.
The blame for the predictability of the evening is definitely the fault of playwright Philip King, while the repetitiveness and obviousness of the production is all Director Ben Tyler's doing. While he's still capable of coming up with engaging and funny stage pictures, he must have known that the script could not run on its own two shaky legs, and has directed everyone to overcompensate. I know that two of the actresses from a previous HCT production also directed by Mr. Tyler, Ms. Shepherd and Ms. Pruseau, are capable of something more than mugging, but only Ms. Pruseau seems to have escaped from the hammering approach required. Ms. Pruseau is as over-the-top as the rest, but her comedic turns-and-twists are the only jokes at which I chuckled. The remainder of the ensemble is hammy but mostly adequate.
Ms. Shepherd is as stagy as can be, and while it somewhat fits with her awful actress character, it gets old very quickly. Mr. O'Mara reads his lines more than actually says them, although in his dealings with Ms. Shepherd, he does sometimes show a comedic timing that is sometimes lacking in others. Mr. Koelbel starts off well, but when required to join in a half-act-long chase scene, drops all balance for the muggingly obvious. My companion and I split on Mr. Etter's performance; she liked him, believing he was soft-spoken and modulated, while he was barely a blip on my radar screen, save for his unrecognizable accent. Mr. Graham is cute, playing the timid guest-reverend in a tentative way that fits his character, while Mr. Shipman should be hoarse at the end of each performance, considering that most every line of his is a barked order. Mr. Davey is a funny and consistent intruder, but Ms. Rogers is a distracting stage presence with the inexcusable style of "state a line then strike a pose," one that does not include for such things as actually listening to the person speaking when she's mute.
John Autore's set is once again a theatre-in-the-round gem, utilizing side stairs for a closet, but the problem with doing farce-in-the-round is that it takes a few seconds for actors to move to exits and slam doors, which loses the punctuation and creates a lag-time that is deadly in this type of theatre. Craig Steenerson's lighting is solid, and Sandy Dietlein's costumes are almost perfectly period.
My and my companion's nearly consistent silence was not the general consensus. Some moments were met with howling laughter, although I'm still not sure why. I guess in an age where Jim Carrey can be a superstar, the basic mechanics of stage farce can be usurped by mugging and holding for laughs. I'm certain, based on the first two productions, that sweetness will replace obviousness once more in future productions.