‘Dear Brutus’ @ Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas
Photos by Mike Morgan Photography and Kris Ikejiri
—Jan Farrington
How you feel about J.M. Barrie’s 1917 comedy/drama/fantasy Dear Brutus at Mainstage Irving-Las Colinas will depend on how you feel about humor that comes at you sideways—playful, whimsical, offbeat, unexpectedly touching. In other words, not a laugh riot, but hitting your funny bone and your sweet spots with a satisfying thwack.
I love that kind of comedy myself—and some of my favorites come from the Dear Brutus time frame (1890s through the start of WWI), when playwrights such as G.B. Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Harold Brighouse (Hobson’s Choice) and James Barrie (he of Peter Pan and more) were filling London theaters with the sound of laughter.
Mainstage Irving’s production, thoughtfully directed and well-paced by Rose Ann Holman, and with an engaging cast that’s strong across the board, handles the play’s shifting atmosphere very well—moving from parlor banter to “into the woods” magic (and back again) with a convincing sense of embracing each moment.
The premise has a smidge of the actual Into the Woods, a scoche of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and a touch of Peter Pan (of course). A group of posh London folk have been invited to spend the Midsummer holiday at the country house of an old gentleman who says they have “something in common.” His name is Lob, and the villagers nearby (who can’t recall him ever being older or younger) think of him as a leftover from Merrie Old England. Played charmingly by Dio Garner, he twirls and laughs in a red-gold dressing gown and cap—a Lost Boy not quite grown up, or a Puck still lurking near fairyland after all these centuries.
Until Lob makes an entrance, the parlor conversations among the husbands, wives, and stray “singles” are about what we’d expect. Mr. & Mrs. Coade (Allen Matthews and Barry Alguire), an older couple long married, are teasing and comfortable with each other. Mr. & Mrs. Purdie (Brian Hoffman and Hanna Destiny Lynn) are cool and distant—his younger mistress Joanna (Bethany Soder) is part of the gathering too. Lady Caroline (Kristin Sutton Ford) seems brittle and self-centered, and Lob’s butler Matey (Bill Lewis) has an eye for the ladies’ jewelry. And something’s gone really wrong with the marriage of Mr. & Mrs. Dearth (Travis Cook and Staci Cook), who started out in love, but live now in bitterness and regret.
Barrie—through Lob and a magic woodland out back—offers them second chances, a look at what might have been, and might still be if they want it enough. At the end of Act One, almost all the guests (butler Matey goes too, and Mrs. Coade stays behind) charge into the unknown.
Act Two gives us snapshots of the character’s doings in this fantasy world, as they wander through the woods, sometimes alone, or with people they might not have “hung” with back in reality. The longest and most compelling scene is between the alcoholic artist Dearth and a child he’s met in the woods—though both believe they are father and daughter, Daddy and Margaret (Carol Diaz-Arrastia).
Barrie’s singular skill at creating child characters (and delightful conversations with them) make this a scene that’s hard to shake off: beautiful, teasing, and sad for the man who has longed for children of his own (both Dearth and Barrie fall into that category). Margaret and Dearth see a poor and lonely beggar woman in the woods (she looks familiar)—and their meeting will linger.
In Act Three the party guests stumble back into the house one or two at a time—finding Lob asleep by the fire and their minds in a whirl. Slowly, they come back to themselves, but the second chances they were offered are still in the air. Can we change, Barrie wonders, or are we always ourselves, no matter what paths we take? With rueful, mischievous humor, he sends his party guests back to their lives—though a tender exchange between one couple lets us know the night’s magic has done some good.
Vintage comedies date themselves in different ways, and at different speeds. I can smile at Shakespeare’s clowns, but it takes a lot of ‘splaining to make the jokes work. I cackle at Neil Simon while my children roll their eyes. But sometimes, a century-old comedy like this one sails straight for you, fresh and funny and surprisingly true in the end.
The period costumes (by Michael Robinson) and society chatter will remind you of a bit of Shaw, or of Oscar Wilde’s Earnest, but the edges of Barrie’s Dear Brutus are much softer—and neither George B. nor Oscar has ever left me wiping a tear or two away. It’s a charming play.
WHEN: March 8-23, 2024
WHERE: Irving Arts Center, 3333 N. MacArthur Blvd., Irving TX
WEB: mainstageirving.com
