Within this three-dimensional Whatteau, the people always populating his paintings are here portrayed by real actors performing a witty rendition of Marivaux’s script. Silvia, played by the beautiful Jennifer Austin, is a young woman not quite eager to marry the first pair of pants that comes along – somebody who might just want to take control of her family’s money, and someone she might not be in love with. When the young Dorante (Phillip Dunbridge), a man she has never met, comes calling on her, she quickly decides to switch places with her servant Lisette (Lisel Gorell-Getz) in order that she might get to know what kind of a man he really is (not just how he is when he’s wooing Lisette whom he thinks is her -- if you followed all that!). What she doesn’t know is that Dorante had thought up the same crazy scheme, and arrives pretending that he is his servant Harlequin (Spencer Moses). Let the games begin!

Director Jimmy Saba’s casting is superb. Jennifer Austin and Phillip Dunbridge are the aristocrats who both quickly realize they want nothing to do with the servants whom they think are their counterpart aristocrats. The funniest parts are played by Lisel Gorell-Getz and Spencer Moses who are riots as the goofy servants pretending to be aristocrats – their stumbling attempts to put on airs and their “spirited” attempts to be more like themselves make it clear that they are the one-and-only perfect match for each other. Don Loper serves nicely as Silvia’s wise father Orgon who wants what’s best for his daughter and is clever enough to help her find it by herself. And David McBean takes the little role of Silvia’s disdainful brother Mario and transforms it into a character that soon earns a laugh every time he walks into the picture with his sidesplitting expressions and divertingly gay demeanor.

Rob Hopper
National Arts Digest