Fun, legitimate theatre? 'You Never Can Tell'

BY JOSH DRIMMER

COURTESY YALE REP. You never can tell when you'll need a small animal on your head.

The Yale Repertory Theatre's first production of the year, George Bernard Shaw's You Never Can Tell, is fully legitimate theatre, complete with intricate sets, late 19th-century costumes, and American actors speaking in British accents, with none of the radical innovation and modernization that makes or mars most Rep shows. Then again, it also happens to be a great, energetic adaptation of one of Shaw's finest comedies, retaining all of Shaw's wittiness without even making us aware these jokes are more than 100 years old. It seems someone forgot to tell director Stan Wojewodski, Jr. and his excellent cast to refuse to enjoy themselves, let alone entertain the audience. Their sheer pleasure—rather than the sets, costumes, or accents—thus leaves the lasting impression.

The plot, which inevitably reveals many surprises, revolves around the Clandon family. The Clandons—two young women, a man, and the mother who raised them (Sandra Shipley)—return to England after 18 years in Portugal. The children have no idea who their father is, but Valentine (John Hansen), a five-shilling dentist down to his last pence, suspects that Crampton (Martin Rayner) fits the bill. Valentine's grumpy landlord hasn't seen his children, of course, in 18 years, when his wife took them away. There's enough coincidence and conflict here to easily sustain a couple of acts, but Valentine makes matters even more complicated by falling in love with Gloria (Shannon Koob), the determined and independent eldest daughter who repudiates marriage as an outdated institution and seeks a scientific explanation of love. Freewheeling between science, philosophy, and poetry, Valentine steals her affection and a kiss—but has he used this spiel before?

True to the traditional comedy-of-manners format, Valentine and Gloria quibble and quabble until they finally give up and get engaged. Though the terrain is familiar, it's also quite funny because of Hansen and Koob's natural chemistry: he's exuberant, she's romantic in spite of her attempts at cynicism, and they're perfect for each other (even if it takes them just under two and half hours to see it themselves).

But even though Hansen and Koob are great romantic leads, Shaw gives his best quips and witticisms to the younger children, Dolly and Phillip (Mirelle Enos and Neal Dodson), and a wise-cracking waiter (Michael Allinson), who use them to full advantage to steal the show. Playing off dour straight men like Rayner's frumpy Crampton and the John Cleese-like family council (Thomas James O'Leary, showing full comprehension of A Fish Called Wanda), Enos and Dodson jabber away like British Marx Brothers. They punctuate awkward moments with an unnecessary "Yes, it's embarassing isn't it?" and puncture touching scenes by noting, "Did you feel the pathos of that?" Even their moments of silence are accompanied by hilarious mouth-covering gestures, brief as those silences may be.

Allinson, on the other hand, is a character in the Wilde tradition: the butler/servant type who knows far more than the people he's serving. While Gloria insists she'll never fall in love, Crampton denies he'll ever love his children, and Valentine struts confidently along, Allinson just repeats his favorite motto, "You never can tell," and grins, knowing none of these people will get quite what they expected.

Audience members expecting a well-crafted play, nice lighting, elegant costumes, and expensive sets (and they do actually still exist) will get their money's worth; after a long scene change, the revelation of a gorgeous seaside veranda set actually drew applause at Tuesday's performance. But the breeziness, the fun, the simple entertainment value of Wojewodski's production is enough to actually satisfy people who don't go to plays to accumulate culture. And Shaw's play, after all these years, is rich and funny enough without any musical adaption. Or a laser light show.

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