The phrase “the show must go on” takes on added poignancy and relevance in George Brant’s comedy Into the Breeches! Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40 is taking on the charming-yet-with-a-message play about the unifying power of theatre, opening today, Thursday, March 21 and running through Saturday, April 27 at the company’s Mary Levin Cutler Theatre. (For details, see below.)
It’s the fall of 1942 and the local playhouse director and leading men are fighting the Axis in World War II. The director’s wife Maggie Dalton (Caroline Westheimer) decides to carry out her husband’s vision and mount an all-female production of William Shakespeare’s The Henriad– a combination of Henry IV and Henry V.
Along the way she fights a skeptical theatre board president Ellsworth Snow (David Datz), clashes with company diva Celeste Fielding (Maria Brodeur), encourages a young ingénue June Bennett (Tricia Cruz) and inspires an inexperienced yet enthusiastic troupe. As the women bond over rehearsals, they learn to trust each other, the power of the language and the magnitude of their work.
With the men away at war, the women take on roles on stage and in life they’ve never had. Winifred Snow (Jean Mackie) has not wanted to defy her husband and Grace Richards (Holly Sidell) has never acted because her husband wouldn’t approve. It’s a play about characters awakening to new possibilities in their lives and running with them.
A Perfect Fit
Directing the production is Shakespeare expert Louis Fantasia. An artistic associate of the Los Angeles Shakespeare Center, Fantasia was director of Shakespeare at the Huntington, the teacher training institute of the Huntington Library from 2005-2017. He’s directed more than 250 plays and operas worldwide and last year led a reading of Dennis Richard’s play Oswald: The Actual Interrogation for Theatre 40.
David (Stafford, Theatre 40 artistic/managing director) asked me if I was interested in another production and I vaguely said ‘yes,’ recalls Fantasia. “He gave me two choices; an Agatha Christie play and this one. I wasn’t familiar with it, but it fit into my schedule, and I love the Shakespeare connections.”
Fantasia organized galas for Brit Week from 2014-16. “They had large casts and were a huge undertaking. So taking part in the fun of this show is appealing. I hadn’t had time to do a full production for probably 10 years. And directing this show is way better than working on my golf game.”
Entertaining, And With Substance
“I think the play is quite fun,” says Fantasia. I’ve heard people call it ‘cute,’ but it has so much substance. It addresses racial, sexual and gender stereotypes.” As their rehearsals progress, the cast confronts the injustices of the world: discrimination against women, African-Americans and homosexuals, especially when costumer Ida Green (Nakasha Norwood) and stage manager Stuart Lasker (Kevin Dulude) join the show.
“It’s interesting to note the mindset of the housewives who come from different economic and social strata along with a gay stage manager and Black costume designer who are all united in the war effort,” says Fantasia. “There’s a social cohesion that’s lacking in our country now. This play says there is something to working for the greater good instead of individual satisfaction and getting a single-issue agenda heard. There was a time in the not-too-distant past, when people weren’t so afraid to make sacrifices for the common good.
“The playwright hits the right political buttons, like equal pay for equal work and inclusive representation on stage. And he does it with a fairly light touch.”
Heartfelt Messages
“I think this play shows audiences there’s a way out of the current mess our country’s in,” says Fantasia.
In the play Maggie does something different. She checks in with her cast, worried about their loved ones overseas. “She puts that kind of concern before the artistic quality of their play,” says Fantasia.
“That gives her great humanity,” he adds. “I think if we’re able to look at a situation whether it’s the border crisis or homelessness we have to ask what’s the human cost, and there’s always a human cost. We may not like what the other side is proposing, but we can’t just sit by and clutch our pearls and wring our hands and say it’s just too difficult. We have to find a collaborative, collective way out.”
The play also touches on the power of great art to move people. Early in the play when Maggie is trying to convince Mr. Snow to greenlight her vision, she mentions “the linger effect;” how an affecting performance “leaves a glow that lasts for days, weeks, sometimes a lifetime.”
Fitting In The Shakespeare
Brant chose to incorporate the Henry plays, particularly Henry V into his story. As he’s said, “it felt like the perfect match for a theatre trying to rally the troops and the home front.”
- Fantasia agrees. “The play asks ‘What does it take to create a national identity? And you don’t achieve that without a commitment to a national ideal. That’s why (Laurence) Olivier’s version of Henry V was so popular during the war.”
Brant makes good use of the “Once more unto the breech” and St. Crispin’s Day speech with it’s famous “we few, we happy few, we band of brothers,” “plus a little Falstaff,” says Fantasia. “I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for a young theatre company do be doing these plays.” He himself has directed both Henrys “and I did a Richard II a hundred years ago.”
Loving The Language
Over the course of the play, the women with no acting experience let alone Shakespeare, go from terrible to finding the heart of their characters. “It’s a nice arc for the women to travel,” says Fantasia.
As an authority on The Bard (his books include Instant Shakespeare, Tragedy in the Age of Oprah: Essays on Five Great Plays and Talking Shakespeare: Notes from a Journey), Fantasia wants the Shakespeare sections to shine. “We’re really working,” he says. He decided to take the approach of “making the speeches stand out and then deconstructing them for the bad Shakespeare—which I’ve seen a lot of—when the fledging group is first learning.”
Some of Fantasia’s cast had not done Shakespeare before, but has caught on quickly, he says. “And they get to do all the all the perks of a Shakespeare work with sword fights and Elizabethan dance.”
Meeting The Challenges
In addition to mastering the language, Fantasia has found the biggest directing challenge is staging the many scenes of read throughs while the cast is studying the play. “It gets a little tricky with the women sitting around for table work when everyone needs to be seen.”
Brant’s written the play in short scenes that flow directly into each other. “It’s got like a hundred costume changes; sometimes it feels like we’re doing Noises Off. They have to be planned as carefully as the blocking.”
Keeping It Close To Home
A commission by the Trinity Repertory company, playwright Brant initially set the play in Providence, R.I., with numerous mentions of area sites. He encourages companies to localize their productions, so Fantasia is setting the action in Los Angeles with mentions of the Jonathan Club, Wilshire Country Club, a children’s theatre in Encino, the Long Beach Naval Complex and UCLA (more than 260 students, faculty and alumni were killed in WWII).
Theatre Forty is at 241 S. Moreno Drive, on the Beverly Hills High School campus. For the production schedule, call 310-364-0535 or visit http://theatre40.org. Tickets are $35. Free parking is available in the parking lot beneath the theatre. To access parking, enter through the driveway at the intersection of Durant and Moreno Drives.
Steve Simmons is an accomplished writer and editor who writes about a wide array of topics including entertainment. His successful experience at The Beverly Hills Courier and other publications set the stage for his blog. Contact Steve at steve.simmons0211@gmail.com or 626-788-6734.
