Happy Birthday

I had the pleasure of attending a twilight performance of Sherbrooke Theatre Company’s production of Happy Birthday. I have to admit that I’m partial to comedies and farces and this is definitely a farce in every sense of the word.

I feel sorry for Sherbrooke as the council are doing heavy construction work and I know I wasn’t the only one who struggled to find the theatre, despite having been there many times before. Perhaps the council could show some courtesy and put signs up to avoid such confusion. I was there in daylight so I dread to think what would have happened if I had been to a night performance. I walked for ages from what appeared to be the right car park, just to get to the front door of the theatre.

I was happy to finally take my seat in time for the play to start. While reading the program, I noticed there was nothing written about the play’s plot, which I found unusual for a program as it can be a bit disconcerting if you know nothing about the play before it starts. 

Fortunately, I had done my research and had an idea of what it was about. I do believe this is important because the dialogue is so fast in this particular play that if the audience have no idea what’s going on, they can easily miss some of the action.

Craig Maloney directed this play and chose a solid cast. The actors in this play couldn’t have been better cast for their individual roles. Kudos to Craig Maloney for managing to find these five gifted actors. I’m sure rehearsals were both fun and exhausting.

I found the set to be well designed and well constructed, having six functional doors that each saw lots of action. The furniture was well suited to the action, especially the expandable dining table that converted from a small table to the centrepiece for dinner. A framed photo of the main married couple on the wall was a nice touch.

Because the seating is raked and the audience have to look down on the stage, I would like to have seen carpet or a rug on the floor to cover up the dusty stage and bring a little extra warmth to the room.

Now to the cast. There are five characters in this play. Bernard and wife Jacqueline are the married couple at the centre of everything. They own a country holiday home and have decided to get away for the weekend.

However, there’s more to this decision than meets the eye. Bernard invites long-time friend Robert along. This pleases both Robert and Jacqueline as they’re secretly having an affair behind Bernard’s back.

However, Bernard is certainly no innocent either. He has invited his mistress, Brigit, along as well and has lined Robert up to pretend to be Brigit’s lover to avoid raising any suspicions on Jacqueline’s part and allow the two of them to spend time together, right under Jacqueline’s nose. However, he neglects to tell Robert about this prior to his arrival and so Robert is quite nervous right throughout the play as he struggles to cope with the constantly changing storylines that his friend creates throughout the evening.

Jacqueline receives a phone call from a domestic help agency she had previously contacted to supply a temporary maid/housekeeper for the weekend as well. This single phone call starts a chain reaction of epic proportion that causes all five people in the house to become involved in a multitude of lies and deceptions that become more and more entangled as the play progresses.

Laell Raiteri plays Jacqueline, the lady of the house, with a great deal of skill and strong characterisation. She’s more than a match for her so-called loving husband, Bernard, played by Cameron South. South is a very tall man and uses his height to extra advantage as he struts about the stage, weaving his ever-changing webs of deceit and tangling and confusing poor Robert (Stephen Barber) as much as humanly possible.

Barber is short compared to South and this worked exceptionally well for both actors as well as the others in the cast. Barber plays the flustered Robert with great skill. It takes a confident, skilled actor to play the role of someone who appears to be so incompetent and constantly bamboozled.

Karen Bannon plays Brigit with impeccable timing, strong characterisation, great skill and a real flair for handling the absurd situations she finds herself in. She rapidly becomes the centre of all the confusion and handles every twist and turn without blinking an eyelid.

Just to confuse things even further, Rebecca Smith plays Brigit as well but I refuse to explain why there are two Brigits because that would really spoil some of the antics that happen throughout the play. Smith played her role well and smoothly handled the various transitions her character was forced to handle because of Bernard and Robert’s constant bumbling.

Suffice it to say that both Brigits were very different actors and were each perfect for their roles. They added to the confusion in more ways than one.

The five actors in this play were all very strong, easily able to handle the rapid-fire dialogue and appeared very comfortable feeding off each other. I do have to admit that, for me, the stand out performer of the evening was Karen Bannon. If you have seen the play, you’ll probably understand why and if you haven’t, go and find out for yourself as it has another two weeks to run.  

Craig Maloney'’s cast and crew ensured everything ran smoothly and, apart from a spilt glass of water from the sound operator upstairs sprinkling the audience with water during interval, there were no noticeable technical problems although the play did start a little later than the scheduled start time.

I highly recommend this play to anyone who enjoys a good laugh as there are plenty of opportunities in this well written, well acted play which has two more weeks to run.