Director Colleen Reilly compares the show opening Thursday in St. Vincent Theatre's summer series to a great summer beach read or a Hollywood blockbuster.
"The Ladies Man" is an "utterly delightful" French farce set at the turn of the 20th century that is so funny, Reilly says, that her eight-actor cast was blown away when they read the script.
"I honestly thought it was perhaps the funniest play I had ever read," says David Cabot, who plays the lead role of Dr. Hercule Molineaux and has performed in the summer series for each of the past four years.
The script was originally written by, according to Reilly, the "master of French boulevard farce" George Feydeau, and translated by American playwright and director Charles Morey.
"Often with farces, you actually have to see them," Cabot says. "They don't normally read terrifically, but the script is so witty, and the word play is so fun. I couldn't wait to get this play on its feet."
The wit and word play in "The Ladies Man" revolves around Dr. Molineaux' embarrassing secret. When he finds himself in a sticky but innocent situation with a female patient, he tells one lie that leads to many others.
"Of course, this being a French farce," Reilly says, "there's no such thing as a harmless little lie."
"That lie gets challenged by his wife, his mother-in-law and the female patient's husband, and he tells other white lies," Cabot says. "Things just snowball out of control, and he spends the entire play trying to rectify all these little white lies with comic results."
"The Ladies Man" is the second of three comedies scheduled for this year's summer season. Each of the three is a different genre of comedy, according to Reilly, and in taking nothing away from the other two shows, she finds this play is the most hilarious and outlandish.
"This is faster, and in some ways fanciful," she says. "Someone once said that farce is about ordinary people in ridiculous situations. Some of the situations in 'The Ladies Man' are, indeed, completely absurd. They start from a simple premise but build and build on themselves in ways that I don't think would happen in real life.
"It's very fast and clever and quick. It's like a marathon for the actors, a marathon of quick conversations, doors slamming, chases. It's definitely the bubbliest and zaniest of the comedies we're doing this summer."
Additional Information:
'The Ladies Man'
When: June 23-July 10 at 8:10 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 2:10 p.m. June 29, and July 6 and 10.
Admission: $10 for preview performance Thursday, $19 for Tuesday-Thursday evenings, $22 for Fridays and Saturdays, and $16 for matinees.
Where: St. Vincent Theatre, near Latrobe
Details: 724-537-8900
