Ah, the joys of a cast totally into their assigned dialects! Lee Donnelly, as maid Lilly Thompson, has a cockney accent that almost needs translation. Shari Lyon, as Miss Nanette Parry, has a proper educated way of speaking, Jeff Laurence's (Brigadier Albert Rayne) speech is peppered with a military flavor. Dialect coach Helen McGuinness brings this authenticity to Breath of Spring, which adds so much to the piece's humor. Each actor not only speaks properly, but with just the right dialect for the character. No easy task!
Peter Coke's Breath of Spring is a simple story of five somewhat over-the-hill (albeit amateur) fur purloiners. Add to the mix a maid who has already done time for fur thefts.
Director Sherrie Colbourn has done an excellent job of assembling a cast of not over-the-hill actors that fit their roles nicely. This ensemble piece is burdened with three acts, popular when the play was written but no longer in vogue. It is also hampered by a run time of almost two and a half hours with two ten-minute intermissions. Coke quite simply put too many words into his script. The pacing also falters occasionally.
Laurence's Brigadier is traditionally gruff, with the proper amount of arrogance and a theatrical take-charge attitude. Donnelly looks marvelous is her red wig, easily depicting a woman who had gone wrong and now tries to get her life together. Shari Lyon, playing the youngest of the over-the-hill gang, Nanette, depicts an English instructor whose charges appear to be mostly over the telephone.
A cute sub-plot pits Dame Beatrice Appleby (Sheila Miller) against her dear friend Alice (Anita Honey) for the affections of the good Brigadier. Miller and Honey handle both the friendship and the antagonism amusingly. Gloria Goldstein, as Hattie, is a delightful study in paranoia and hysteria. Truly amusing! Finally, in Act III, we meet Pape (Mark Martin) and Kemp (Jason Anderson), two rather inept Scotland Yard officers investigating a fur robbery.
The set is a marvel. Rosemary King's rendition of Albert Hall could be seen off the porch. The set is furnished and dressed with a mass of elegant furniture and walls absolutely crowded with memorabilia obviously collected by Dame Appleby during her long lifetime. Arlene Darden's costumes fit the period, London in the late 40s, admirably.
While Breath of Spring is a one-joke play (old folks in crime), it has enough subplots and a diversity of characters to hold one's interest and bring some laughs.
