Act a Lady

Two years ago Actors Theatre of Louisville opened its prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays with young Jordan Harrison's Kid-Simple, a radio play in the flesh, a feverish adolescent concoction (my words) that bored me silly. ATL has now chosen Harrison's Act a Lady to open its 2006 Humana Festival, and it comes across as a very good choice under Anne Kauffman's admirable direction. This wild and witty take on gender bending overlays a campy French play-within-a-play. Harrison's inspiration came from photos of "womanless weddings" that Midwestern towns used to stage with prominent local men dressed as females.

Set in 1927, Act a Lady has the Elks Lodge staging its elaborately costumed and bewigged play to raise money for kids at Christmas. Zina (Sandra Shipley), butch and wearing britches, is the director with a European accent they import. The three men -- Paul O'Brien as Miles and Lady Romola, Matt Seidman as True and the Countess Roquefort, and Steven Boyer as Casper and Greta the Maid -- slip comfortably into their female roles. But Dorothy (Suzanna Hay), the God-fearing wife of Miles, has problems with this kind of thing being art, though she is persuaded to play her accordian during the show. She's a combination of Aunty Em from "The Wizard of Oz" and a hayseed Thelma Ritter.

Rounding out the cast is Lorna (Cheryl Lynn Bowers) as the sweet-faced makeup girl back home after having supposedly worked on stars in Hollywood. She and True set off sparks while Casper years to do the same with True.

The hugely enjoyable French melodrama with its malicious, murderous aristocrats and amorous derring-do makes the first act go by quickly. Seidman, O'Brien and Boyer (especially Boyer as the saucy French maid) are just great. But the second act with the women dressed as the men who are playing women in the Elks show is too labored an illustration of the woman in every man and the man in every women. Enough already. Stick with the fun parts.