The Curious Savage, currently at Stray Dog Theatre, gets laughs from the kind, gentle, slightly off-kilter people in The Cloisters sanatorium and from the avarice and vanity of the three stepchildren of a newly widowed and now very wealthy woman, Mrs. Ethel P. Savage. Playwright John Patrick’s title puns on her name; she is a perfectly respectable person, though she does possess a lively curiosity about people and life.

At The Cloisters, young Fairy May claims to be a person of great beauty though she is quite ordinary looking, and her nerves are not fully in control of her muscles. Jeff, a recent veteran of the Second World War and a concert pianist, believes that he was horribly scarred in the plane crash that killed all his men but left him without a scratch. Florence cares for a doll that she believes is her now five-year-old son who died when an infant. Hannibal is a statistician who lost his reason when he was replaced by an electronic calculator and couldn’t find work again. He believes he is a classical violinist and constantly carries a violin bow which he waves as if he were playing a violin. Mrs. Paddy, who had once been told by her husband to “shut up,” rarely speaks except to loudly proclaim alphabetical lists of things she hates, including electricity, which she has given up for Lent and therefore turns off any light switch she sees. She paints with oils and thinks herself a great artist, but she does only simplistic seascapes, having never seen the ocean

Mrs. Savage’s eldest stepchild Titus is the least popular senator in Congress and easily loses his temper when dealing with his stepmother. HIs sister Lily Belle, a celebrity heiress, once married a Slovak prince and has remarried five times since. The youngest of the three, Samuel, is a judge who has had the most overturned decisions in the country.

“Miss Willie” (Wilhelmina) is a nurse and an administrative assistant at the sanatorium. She works hard and is kind and understanding with the patients, and she helps Mrs. Savage get the best of her stepchildren. So does Dr. Emmett, the staff doctor for this wing of The Cloisters.

With Gary F. Bell’s direction, the cast all find the right way for each to play his or her character. Those we should like and admire, we like and admire. Those we should dislike and condemn, we dislike and condemn. They guide our sympathies in the right ways. And we laugh either at or with them.

In this fine cast Anne Vega is Florence, Gansner is Hannibal, Lindsey Grojean is Fairy May, Tyson Cole is Jeffrey, Claire Coffey is Miss Willie,  Camille Fensterman is Mrs.Paddy, Matt Anderson is Titus Savage, Sarajane Clark is Lily Belle Savage, Joseph Garner is Samuell Savage, David Wassilak is Dr. Emmett, and Liz Mischel is Ethel Savage. A fine company.

Director Bell’s comfortably attractive set looked right for such an institution, Tyler Duenow designed the lights, Colleen Michelson the costumes, and Justin Been the sound, and Been is the Stage Manager, with Jude Hagene as the Scenic Painter and Sarah Gene Dowling as the Social Media Manager.

I had a very pleasant time with The Curious Savage at Stray Dog Theatre.

—Bob Wilcox

Photo by John Lamb
From the left, Tyson Cole as Jeffrey, Liz Mischel as Ethel Savage, Gansner as Hannibal, and Lindsey Grojean as Fairy May in The Curious Savage.