Return Engagements

True love takes time, persistence, lots of coincidences and, of course, a bedroom. Not just any bedroom, mind you. In this case, it takes a very special bedroom only to be discovered in a crazy place like Canada where, over a period of three decades, romances are found, lost, and found again among two different couples and one quartet who, as it turns out, are all connected to each other in one bizarre way or another.

Such is the wild and witty comedic premise behind Bernard Slade’s Return Engagements, which is full of fun and surprising humor. Scripps Ranch Theatre continues their string of impressive productions with this show that sounds a bit preposterous but proves to be extremely engaging.

Each of the three scenes in the first act begins in bed, beginning in 1954 with rising young actress Daisy (Molly Lovell) and rising young bellboy Raymond (Frank Remiatte). Daisy wakes feeling a bit stressed that it’s only three hours before her wedding, and that she has just woken up with the bellboy instead of her fiancé. An analytical actress, she desperately searches for the motivation behind her fling. A romantic bellboy, Raymond tries to convince her that it’s the chemistry of love that brought them together. Daisy finds him charming, but she’s got big dreams that don’t include marrying bellboys, and leaves never to return. At least for another twenty years. Molly Lovell and Scripps favorite Frank Remiatte kick the show off to a sparkling start.

Scene Two sets up the most heartwarming relationship, wonderfully portrayed by E. Duane Weekly and Annie Katica. The former stars as Joe, a handyman working on set construction at the theatre next door. He gets introduced to love in more ways than one when a beautiful young Polish woman named Miranda pays him to sleep with her. She just wants his genes to have a good, healthy child, but Joe loses both his virginity and his heart in the process. She leaves him with a secret family recipe for Polish sausage copied from a most unusual cookbook, taking the seeds of their child with her, but their stories are not quite done. E. Duane Weekly is endearing as nice guy Joe and Annie Katica offers an outstanding performance both as the straightforward Miranda who is touched by Joe’s sincerity, and as Miranda’s warm and intelligent daughter twenty-five years later who has a lot of her mother inside her (and who can mimic her mother’s thick Polish accent remarkably well).

Scene Three features that quartet of strange lovers. They include former married couple Oliver and Fern who room together just days before they are both set to marry much younger lovers who couldn’t be more different than themselves. It turns out that there’s a lot of love flowing between the four of them, turning that quartet into an amusingly confused love triangle – or love square. Jill Drexler and Ed Hollingsworth are cleverly diverting as the intelligent, cultured, mature, middle-aged couple who maybe aren’t as mature as they pretend to be. Jerry Young is the meek, unimaginative, nerdy dentist named Henry who Jill plans on marrying. Cristyn Chandler is the fresh, young, alluring but hilariously ditzy Dawn whose brain aches when Ed gets too intellectual or when she has to sit through a Bee-thoven concert.

Act Two brings with it the entertaining sequels to each of those three scenes, in the end resulting in preparations for a wedding that will bring all the characters together to this most bewitching bedroom.

Director John Simonds has put together a thoroughly enjoyable show filled with terrific comic timing. Rick Carlson’s set is an inviting home away from home. The room’s trimmings change for each scene, as the several years between each scene require some updating, and Simonds has it changed by a trio of servants, one man and two women (Larry Cerrito, Angie Reedy, and Kathleen Connor), who make up the room while playfully saluting the Canadian flag and engaging in an ever-changing romantic love triangle of their own. Apparently the room affects everyone who enters it.

Performs through May 29, 2005.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill

~ Cast ~

Raymond: Frank Remiatte
Daisy: Molly Lovell
Joe: E. Duane Weekly
Miranda: Annie Katica
Oliver: Ed Hollingsworth
Fern: Jill Drexler
Dawn: Cristyn Chandler
Henry: Jerry Young
Mr. Phillips: Roger Drexler

Director: John Simonds
Set Design: Rick Carlson
Lighting Designer: Scott Padrick
Costume Designer: Allison Pokladowski
Sound Designer: Gordon Berholtz
Stage Manager: Nadine Lindseth

Tina Davis Review, Curtiss-Wright Corporation

i It’s the beginning of the week and you must be already planning the upcoming weekend, so you’re not caught doing nothing on a Saturday night. Maybe you can go out to dinner and see one of the new, but unexciting, movies in the theaters right now. Maybe staying home and crawling up with that fascinating Design of High Performance Microprocessor Circuits book you started months ago, sounds wonderful. What about cleaning the bathroom? What joy!

Though all of those sound excruciatingly fun, how about doing something a bit out of routine? How about seeing Return Engagements at the Scripps Ranch Theatre. This laugh-out-loud comedy, by Bernard Slade (also the creator of The Flying Nun and The Partridge Family as well as Same Time Next Year) is gloriously produced by our own Gordon Bergholtz and features a wonderful cast of eight interesting characters.

I am not a theatre critic, but I know what I like and this play really did make me laugh-out-loud. More so than any movie I’ve seen in the past decade or sitcom I’ve seen since Seinfeld went off the air. The first scene is set in the 50s and the play takes us through the 80s, following the relationships between and among the couples. And it takes place entirely in one room in a country inn in Canada.

The first few scenes are hysterically portrayed with each of the four couples telling their stories. As the play progresses, we find out how they are all intermingled and how dysfunctional their relationships appear to be. By the end, we find out that maybe they’re just as normal, or even more-so, than the rest of us! But they do it in a way that makes you happy that you put off the exciting task of cleaning the house for a few more hours.

If you don’t trust me, you can visit the theatre website at www.scrippsranchtheatre.org for “professional” reviews. But why not just take the chance and go anyway so you can critique it yourself. The theatre is small enough that you feel like you’re right there in bed with the actors. And if you are one of those people who waits until the last minute to get your tickets, you’re in luck. There isn’t a bad seat in the house.

See the website for more information or call up Gordon at extension 472. To get tickets, call the theatre box office at (858) 578-7728. Ticket prices are $16.00 and you can charge them on your debit/credit card right over the phone. Performances are Friday through Sunday. But hurry because the play closes on May 29.

A word of caution: Leave the kids at home. Some content may not be suitable for children. Now, doesn’t that make you want to see it even more!!!!

Hitch Hitchcox Review

Dates Weekends, April 29 thru May 29, 2005

Total Rating Three Stars

Genre Comedy

Author Bernard Slade

Director John Simonds

Prolific Toronto-born playwright Bernard "Bernie" Slade, who has written hundreds of television episodes as well as such plays as "Fatal Attraction" and "Same Time Next Year," touches on the human condition, making us laugh at our own foibles. His 1989 hit, "Return Engagements," currently on Scripps Ranch Theatre’s stage, is no exception. In "Return Engagements" we meet four couples during the mid-50s to the mid-60s and revisit them in the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Slade also twists, vine-like, an intertwining relationship, some strong, some weak, between the couples.

Director John Simonds cast well. He directed a tight production that allowed the laughs to flow naturally. He allowed this talented cast to explore their roles, giving them a believable life. Simonds, however, usually leaves something to remember him by. In "Return Engagements" he enlivens the set changes with stylized movements and a small story with music. Larry Cerrito, Angie Reedy and Kathleen Connor not only update the set as we progressed from 1954 to 1986, they have their own silent scenario that reflects yet another aspect of the interaction between the sexes.

Set in a guesthouse near Stratford, Ontario, the opening segment, entitled Chemistry, features Daisy (Molly Lovell), a tyro actress, waking to find Raymond (Frank Remiatte), a bellboy with a history, in bed next to her. She is due to be married shortly. The chemistry of their scene is a boiling cauldron. Lovell and Remiatte’s reactions bubble with sexuality as much as Slade’s words. They meet, in Act II, 20 years later, now both in new stations in life. Will the chemistry mix? A flash appearance, at the end of the scene, features Roger Drexler as Mr. Phillips in an almost Keystone Kops bit.

In the second scene, entitled Genes, Joe (E. Duane Weekly), a bottom-of-the-ladder construction worker, has just spent the night with Miranda (Annie Katica), a Polish immigrant, purposefully trying to ‘make a baby.’ Katica’s Polish-accented speech is perfect. Her characterization of the strangely logical Miranda is amusing. It is her second-act performance as Miranda’s daughter moving from mimicking her mother’s accent to perfect Canadian English, that platforms her talent. Weekly, in his absolutely best performance to date, brings compassion to a complex role of lover in Act One to father in Act Two. Watching him repress (as scripted) a laugh is one of the funniest moments on stage.

In Passing Fancies, the third segment, Oliver (Ed Hollingsworth) and Fern (Jill Drexler) are spending a last weekend together before their divorce (their still friends) and scheduled marriages to Dawn (Cristyn Chandler) and Henry (Jerry Young), respectively. The foibles of divorce and marriage are always fodder for comedy. Many of us have first-hand knowledge of the experience and, at some point, can find the humor in it. However, leave it to Slade to create even more complexity. The 23 years between acts one and two . . . . Well, this one you just have to see to believe. The three semi-mature adults (Oliver, Fern, Henry) and one beautiful-young-thing (Dawn) have a delightful dance of fantasy. All four actors are so into their roles that the totally unreal relationships work in a totally logical manner.

The technical aspects, from design to execution, are up to the high quality we have come to expect from Scripps Ranch Theatre. The final moments demonstrate the quality of the ensemble’s production. This is an excellent chance to exercise your laugh muscles, to feel the warmth of romance and love, and to ponder with utter bewilderment of the human condition.

Caution Guidance Sexual content

Cast Frank Remiatte, Molly Lovell, E. Duane Weekly, Annie Katica, Ed Hollingsworth, Jill Drexler, Cristyn Chandler, Jerry Young, Roger Drexler

Technical Staff Set Change Actors Larry Cerrito, Angie Reedy & Kathleen Connor, Producer Gordon Bergholtz, AD Nadine Lindseth, AP Tim Deaton, Set Designer Rick Carlson, Lighting Designer Scott Padrick, Costume Designer Allison Pokladowski, Sound Designer Gordon Bergholtz, Prop Master Roger Drexler, Stage Manager Nadine Lindseth, Original Set Change Music Lou Gritter, Techs Anna Ashmore & Gordon Bergholtz, Set Decorator Karina Montgomery, Set Seamstress Jane Russell, Scenic Painter Rosemary King, Royalty Paintings David Rethoret, Stage Decorations Sharon Hays & Karina Montgomery

Critic Robert Hitchcox

Date Reviewed April 29, 2005

Box Office Phone 858 578-7728

Running Time 135 minutes with a 15-minute intermission

Scripps Ranch Theatre History - the first 25 years

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