CDS presents two plays
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 1995.
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The plays are about as different as two productions can be. The first, A Chip in the Sugar, was written for television in 1987 and features a sin. gle actor in a single set. Its author is Alan Bennett, who first won acclaim for Beyond the Fringe and most recently for The Madness of King George.
The second, The Doctor in Spite of Himself, was written some 320 years earlier, involves three sets and a cast of eleven in purported period costume. The playwright is Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Moliere, whom some critics have hailed as a genius because of his distinctive approach to comedy.
Chip
Clive Munyard is the star of A Chip in the Sugar. He played the role about eight years ago, in a CDS production of one-acts at the Harquail Theatre.
Chip looks at the events within a family over a period of about two weeks from the perspective of a mild, middle-aged man, Clive explained.
There are place names and contemporary references that are inevitably British and not terribly relevant, he agreed. "But what we're talking about is a family situation that could occur anywhere in the world -- and does," Clive said before a recent rehearsal.
He confessed to hating the word "tragicomedy" but said it suited this play, "which is really quite funny in parts and sad in others -- if I do it properly."
Audiences who have seen him in every kind of role from King Lear to Educating Rita have reason to expect he will.
Doctor
One would think that any play in the 1990s, especially any comedy, that includes wifebeating and sexual harassment must use extraordinary sensitivity.
Apparently Moliere was not under such constraint. The main character, Sganarelle (played by Tony Rowlands) beats his wife in the first scene and later makes several attempts to fondle his client's well-endowed servant. It's obvious that for him neither woman is a complete person, only an object or convenience.
But Tony has played a host of loveable characters and he invites his audience to accept Sganarelle as a delightful rascal. Yes, he does obtain property by deception, but he freely confides to a young lover that he is only pretending to be a doctor. He then proceeds to help the
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swain win his sweetheart even though this action will bring wrath upon himself.
Such apparent contradictions in character are the grist with which Moliere is said to transform stock comic devices into memorable satire.
As if to forestall any criticism, the playwright and translator use their skills to have Sganerelle's wife chastise an intervening neighbour, telling him she likes to be beaten. And the nurse who seemed to loathe the lecher becomes receptive to his advances. Such situations could readily be considered demeaning. But they are only one aspect of this farce. There is also the unfortunately common tendency of people to let themselves be impressed by something they don't understand rather than question it. Such gullibility has always been the con artist's main asset.
This is a play which allows the actors to wear gorgeous white wigs and have a lot of fun. The challenge will be to transmit that enjoyment to their audience.
Performances begin at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10, or $17.50 for supper theatre each night.
