There is a whole lot going on in Paul Slade Smith’s Unnecessary Farce. There are mistaken identities, doors that aren’t quite closed, hidden cameras, lots of missing clothes, and people just not paying attention. It’s what farce is built on, and if the audience has bought in and is keyed up, farce is the funniest form of comedy. Stage West’s production of Unnecessary Farce is thoughtful, but it relies too heavily on the audience suspending their disbelief. The cast works hard, but there isn’t a thread of plausibility, so the play isn’t quite as funny as it could be.
The play tells of a simple motel room where Karen (Sarah Irwin) works as an accountant for Mayor Meekly (Patrick Brown) and wants to speak with him about some discrepancies she’s discovered. In the connecting room, two undercover cops, Eric (Andrew MacDonald-Smith) and Billie (Jenny McKillop) are trying to capture the conversation on video with a hidden camera. Add Agent Frank (Mike Tan), a hitman Todd (Matthew Mooney) and the Mayor’s wife Mary (Elizabeth Stepkowski Tarhan) and you have a recipe for near misses as well as missing clothing.
Comedy requires high energy from a cast on stage. And this cast steps up. MacDonald-Smith is geeky, disoriented, and is over the top without hamming it up. McKillop is a good partner, her physical comedy is strong and her Billie is a character foil to MacDonald-Smith’s Eric. She also takes the stage by force when she translates Todd’s Scottish into… English. Irwin is innocent and funny as Karen, and Tan plays the slight obliviousness of Agent Frank really well. Mooney’s Todd is quite a wonder, playing bagpipes on command and getting hit by doors in almost every scene. His character is the most over the top, and the one that produces the most laughs. Stepkowski is solid as the Mayor’s wife, throwing a wrench into the dynamics of the characters on stage.
The design team manages to squeeze much onto the small stage, with Ian Martens’ set design presenting two motel rooms connected by a door and complete with beds and doors that lead to the hallways and bathrooms off set. The decor of the motel points to it being not a terrible place to stay, but definitely a budget motel. Ajay Badoni’s lighting design and Zach Coulter’s sound design enhance the impossible moments in the play, especially when the bagpipes are played. Raili Boe’s costume design has every character down to their underwear – literally.
Jan Alexandra Smith’s direction ensures that every entrance and exit is coordinated and the physical comedy is centre stage. But the action gets a little too loose to be completely believable, though Stage West’s production of Unecessary Farce has its heart in the right place.
Stage West’s production of Unnecessary Farce runs until November 8. More information is available online.
Photo Credit: Benjamin Laird