'My Wonderful Day' Vintage Ayckbourn

My Wonderful Day

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, Scenic design and Direction by David J. Miller; Lighting Design, Chris Fornier;  Costume Design, Fabian Aguilar; Sound Design, Walter Eduardo; Dialect Coach, Bryn Austin; Production Stage Manager,  Deirdre Benson; Assistant Director, Kelley Estes

CAST: John Romualdi (Kevin), Hyacinth Tauriac/Alanna Logan (*Winnie), Obehi Janice (Laverne), Becca A. Lewis (Tiffany), Craig Houk (Josh), Angela Smith (Paula)     *the role of Winnie alternates

Performances through March 26 at Zeitgeist Stage Company, Plaza Black Box Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts; Box Office 617-933-8600 or www.Bostontheatrescene.com

Winnie Barnstairs will be nine years old next month and she is about to get the education of her young life in Alan Ayckbourn's My Wonderful Day enjoying its New England premiere at Zeitgeist Stage Company. Out of school sick, Winnie accompanies her pregnant mother on her house cleaning job and quietly sets about writing a homework essay about her wonderful day. What she experiences leaves her wide-eyed and her mother in a state of shock, but the ensuing laughs will make your day.

Artistic Director David J. Miller directs this fast-moving farce and takes the approach that the lead character ought to be played by an age-appropriate actress. Hyacinth Tauriac (at the reviewed performance) and Alanna Logan alternate in the role of Winnie and have much to carry on their small shoulders. Having seen Logan's IRNE-nominated turn in A Civil War Christmas at the Huntington Theatre Company in 2009, I have no doubt that she is up to the task. However, I can tell you first hand that Tauriac acts with a focus and maturity that belies her age (ten years old), and attracts and holds your attention throughout the play. A star is born!

Hyacinth is surrounded by a talented ensemble of adult actors who have the unenviable task of competing with the little girl for notice, but they succeed at a high level. Zeitgeist regular Becca A. Lewis as Tiffany is hard to miss when she briskly teeters around on her high heels and excitedly carries on in a high-pitched tone. She plays the mistress to John Romualdi's Kevin, a stressed out Type A British television personality trying to get his angry wife Paula (Angela Smith) to bugger off, especially after she sabotages a DVD he has produced. Kevin's buddy Josh (Craig Houk) provides a large dose of comedy when he tries too hard to bond with Winnie. Obehi Janice brings warmth and a winning personality to the role of Winnie's mother Laverne, and she shares genuine chemistry with Hyacinth whether they are dreaming about returning to her family's native Martinique or practicing their conversational French in preparation, should the dream come true.

In this 70^th play of his long, prolific career, Ayckbourn mines a new vein of humor, featuring a child in the lead for the first time. By showing the world of the play through her eyes, it heightens the ridiculousness of the scandalous behavior of the so-called adults. When Laverne goes into premature labor, she leaves Winnie in the care of the clueless foursome. Although they know that the child is there, they are not mindful of her presence much of the time and carry on with blue language or R-rated activities as if she were not in the room. Winnie speaks only French to them because she promised her mother she would practice, so Kevin and Josh think she doesn't understand English. Tiffany knows otherwise, but can't understand the French. Only Paula is able to converse with the child and gets a handle on the shenanigans that have been going on in her absence when she shows up unexpectedly at the house.

Playing the lead at the ripe old age of ten would be challenging enough, but a large portion of Winnie's dialogue is in French and, it must be noted, spoken with a British accent. According to Director Miller, the girls had to be trained in both the accent and the foreign language, so kudos to Dialect Coach Bryn Austin. Tauriac also is fluent in body language and offers an assortment of eye rolls and stoic expressions that let us know what's going on with Winnie even when she has nothing to say. In her case, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Zeitgeist Stage Company will close out their 10^th Anniversary Season with the regional premiere of Edward Albee's At Home At The Zoo from May 6 through May 28. The show combines Albee's 1958 one-act play The Zoo Story with a new prequel, Homelife.  

 

 

 

 

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