THE DECORATOR. Two-act comedy by Donald Churchill. Directed by Jane Philbrick. Presented by Fish Hoek Dramatic Society. At The Masque Theatre until 22 September.
SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews
The Decorator follows playwright Donald Churchill’s trend towards telling humorous tales about marriage. This scene is Marcia (Miranda Lewis) and Reggie Hornbeam’s 1980’s neat, simply furnished, middle-class Mayfair flat, and it’s about Marcia misbehaving with Brian, husband to Jane (Eve Carr). Innuendos suggest that absent Reggie behaves the same way, but Jane, who’s out to revenge her husband Brian’s betrayal, will stop at nothing until she’s satisfied.
It all begins as middle-aged Page (David Muller) enters. He’s a real nosey parker who (too) slowly pokes around the apartment, until a piercing scream announces he’s come across Marcia naked in a bath. When she enters all in a tizzy at finding an unknown male in her flat, she’s all-aglow about something – yet to be disclosed.
Out for revenge
Demanding answers to why Page is in her flat, his explanation is a long-winded melodramatic act. Quoting Othello, he explains that, although he’s an actor ‘resting’ between roles, as he’s handy with a paint brush, he’s replacing his sick friend to finish decorating Reggie’s study before he returns… from another business trip.
Accepting he’s above board, Marcia sets him to work. Behind the study’s closed door, Page fusses around, takes his time changing into overalls before slowly stirring the paint-pot.
That’s the moment that the doorbell rings and a confident Jane brushes past Marcia into the room and Marcia’s life starts unravelling. In contrast to Muller’s overly loud brashness, Carr genteelly exposes she knows about Marcia and Brian’s affair.
Jane is seeking revenge – principally because she saw the pair at an intimate dinner in a restaurant Brain wouldn’t take her to because it was so expensive. Now she intends exposing Marcia’s unfaithfulness to Reggie – when he comes home.
Shocked, as to the effect Jane’s revelations would have on her marriage, Marcia hatches a plan with Page to bluff Jane into thinking Page is Reggie. This is where Muller comes into his own as a comic actor. Squeezed into one of Reggie’s Seville Row suits, sporting a handlebar moustache, and speaking posh, Muller gets the laughs Churchill intended. Yes he is overacting. But if one can overact in a controlled sort of way, then he does. Much of this due to Jane Philbrick’s direction to draw from him a more believable characterisation than in his earlier scenes.
Lewis is a competent actress. Unfortunately, hand mannerisms when agitated or bothered by her “allergic itch” served less to add to her character than a few still moments would have done. Perhaps Philbrick could check this before the next performance.
Although Carr is not unknown to Masque audiences she is usually seen in cameo parts. So it came as a pleasant surprise to see her holding centre stage as the quietly funny avenging Jane…. let’s see more of her in major roles.
The Decorator is not the most farcical play ever written. Yet, guided by Philbrick’s sure hand, Churchill’s plot brings out the quirkiness in human nature.
Theatre in Cape Town: https://weekendspecial.co.za/stage-on-the-boards/
What: The Decorator
Presented by: Fish Hoek Dramatic Society
When: until 22 September, 2018
Where: The Masque Theatre, Muizenberg Cape Town
The Decorator tickets: www.computicket.co.za
WS
