The production of The Cottage continues a great tradition at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. The set makes you wish you lived there.
Scenic designer Robert Mark Morgan has created an opulent home in the English countryside with astonishingly high ceilings and tall windows. This space stretches meaning of the word cottage, but the embellishment fits the overall style of the splendid production.
Sandy Rustin’s script gives a precise time for the beginning of the play: “just before 9 a.m. Monday, June 4, 1923.” Sylvia Van Kipness is still suffused with the glow of the previous evening’s rendezvous with her lover, Beau. For the last seven years they have been carrying on a once-a-year affair at the cottage.
Beau is ready to resume his normal live. Sylvia wants more from their relationship. She tell him she sent both their spouses telegrams divulging the affair and announcing her intention to leave her husband.
This revelation has high potential for disaster because Sylvia’s husband, Clarke, is Beau’s brother. When Clarke and Beau’s wife, Marjorie, arrive, they have surprising announcements of their own. The entanglements turn out to be even more complicated when two more characters arrive on the scene.
The Cottage is a comedy of manners in the tradition of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward. Rustin pays homage the earlier plays’ social setting, romantic complications, witty dialogue, and farcical comedy. Rustin’s personal stamp on the play is evident in its feminist leanings and the explicitness of its humor.
Style is of the utmost significance to characters in this tradition, and that importance is reflected in The Rep’s delightful staging. Under Risa Brainin’s direction, the style of the performances is heightened in a way that fits the characters, Morgan’s imposing set, and Renee Garcia’s gorgeous costumes.
The excellent cast includes Jordan Coughtry as Beau, Jack Dryden as Clarke, Andres Enriquez as Richard, Jihan Haddad as Marjorie, Andrea San Miguel as Sylvia, Isa Venere as Dierdre. Sam Matthews provides an additional performance.
All the elements of the production fit together beautifully. Also in the creative team are lighting designer Michael Klaers, sound designer Amanda Werre, wig designer Dennis Milam Bensie, fight director Paul Steger, dialect coach Lauren Roth, and intimacy director Jamie McKittrick.
The play’s setup is completed at the end of Act 1 with the arrival of the last major character. Act 2 is nonstop fun.
The Cottage continues through September 28 in the Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road.
—Gerry Kowarsky
Photo by Jon Gitchoff
From the left, Isa Venere as Dierdre, Andres Enriquez as Richard, Andrea San Miguel as Sylvia, Jihan Haddad as Marjorie, Jack Dryden as Clarke, and Jordan Coughtry as Beau in The Cottage.
