Thursday, October 4, through Sunday, October 14
Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, 600 Robinson Drive, Geneseo IL
With San Francisco's SFGate.com calling it “two hours of high-class hilarity” and “a generous gag-fest packed with rib-tickling delights,” Geneseo's Richmond Hill Barn Theatre continues its 50th-aAnniversary season of audience favorites with the commedie del'arte slapstick Scapin, a work that the Washington Post labeled “buoyantly self-aware” and “a delightful contemporary farce.”
In 1988, Richmond Hill's first production was a comedy by the 17th Century French playwright Molière, and for its golden-anniversary season, the venue delivers another work by the same author, with Scapin (pronounced like “Japan”) cleverly updated for modern times. Mark O'Donnell, who won a Tony Award for co-writing the book to the musical Hairspray, and the legendary clown and comedian Bill Irwin adapted Molière's wickedly funny 1671 play – originally titled Scapin the Schemer – about a clever servant in danger of getting too big for his already oversized britches. In this wildly physical farce, two rich young men fall in love with two beautiful but penniless young women. Considering their fathers will surely disapprove, the boys turn for help to the quick-talking servant Scapin, leading to wily ruses, mistaken identities, absurd disguises, and slapstick humor. Part circus, part vaudeville, and always hilarious, Scapin is a madcap romp DC Theatre Scene called “sophisticated and stylistically spot-on for theatrical aficionados, yet appropriate and delightful for the whole family.”
Directing Scapin is Richmond Hill veteran Jennifer Kingry, who helmed the theatre's 2002 production of the O'Donnell/Irwin comedy along with Geneseo's more recent presentations of Marvin's Room, A Nice Family Gathering, and Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike. Chas Young portrays the clownish trickster Scapin, with a dozen talents filling out Kingry's ensemble: Olivia Egert, Nolan Fassett, Kelsi Ford, Bob Graham, Nancy Green, Patrick Kelley, Colin McConville, Matthew McConville, Dana Moss-Peterson, Tom Naab, Sam Schelly, and Dana Skiles.
Scapin runs October 4 through 14 with performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Admission is $12, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)944-2244 or visiting RHPlayers.com.
