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THE METROMANIACS Send This Review to a Friend
Playwright David Ives has done some plum plundering. Intrigued by the 1738 French play “La Métromanie” by Alexis Piron, Ives decided to create a version of his own and the result is a hilarious evening with a delightful cast in this Red Bull Theater presentation.
The setting is the ballroom of a posh house in Paris, and the time frame is kept with events taking place in the Spring of 1738. Ives has much fun with the dialogue delivered in couplets, including outrageously funny rhymes, with some contemporary references tossed into the hopper. One is rewarded by listening carefully and a desire to read the text may be aroused.
The style is farce and the characterizations are interwoven accordingly. Dina Thomas is enjoyable as Lisette, the savvy maid of Lucille, daughter of the household. Lucille is played languidly by Amelia Pedlow. Adam Lefevre is perfect as Lucille’s father, Francalou. Lucille is in love with poetry, and the young poet Damis is on hand in the person of Christian Conn.
Noah Averbach-Katz plays Dorante, who is in love with Lucille. Other characters include Adam Green as Mondor, Damis’s valet, and Peter Kybart as Baliveau, Damis’s unclde. Rest assured that the cast is a marvelous ensemble, getting into the period style and letting the couplets burst forth merrily as if in casual conversation.
Director Michael Kahn understands the secret of good farce. He keeps the players dedicated to naturalness without hinting that they are trying to be funny. Thus the involvements and the language become devastatingly droll. The show gets a boost from the amusing set design by James Noone, including a deliberately fake-looking so-called forest, and the colorful costume design by Murell Horton.
Ives’s take on this excavated play is thoroughly clever. I haven’t read the original that inspired him, and who knows what author Piron would make of the current version if he were alive to pop in and see it. No matter. If you are looking for an enjoyable show with an abundance of laughs and a superb cast to deliver them, “Metromaniacs” can do the job. At The Duke on 42nd Street, 229 West 42nd Street. Phone: 646-223-3010. Reviewed April 23, 2018.
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