Before Tuesday night’s dress rehearsal of “The Ladies Man,” Peterborough Players Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen joked that after being trapped onstage — twice — by malfunctioning stage doors, he swore to abolish the use of real hardware in further productions. But for this one, he was assured, real hardware was essential.
“The Ladies Man” is a classic five-door French farce, and the players make full use of all five exits and entrances through the course of the play, dashing in and out of doors, slamming them in people’s faces and hiding from the truth as their white lies snowball into mania.
Former Players artistic director Chuck Morey wrote “The Ladies Man” while in residency at the MacDowell Colony, and he hit every beat that a farce needs. Morey directs this production as well. The play centers around Dr. Hercule Molineaux (Anderson Matthews), a turn-of-the-19th-century French doctor who finds the thrill gone — quickly — from his recent marriage to Yvonne (Karron Graves). The two have taken to sleeping in separate bedrooms — hey, that’s two doors right there — and the good doctor is on the verge of a dalliance with a patient (Kate Hampton) at the Moulin Rouge. He can’t go through with it, of course, but after spending the night on a park bench in drunken morosity, his bedraggled return home sets in motion a series of compounding farcical fallacies.
Sided with Hercule is his manservant, Etienne (David Breitbarth), who has the unenviable task of covering for the doctor. Also on his side, debatably, is another patient, Bassinet (Kraig Swartz), who floats through the action in blissful ignorance until he, too, is swept up. Bassinet’s signature lisp has him spitting on every sibilant S — we’re certainly sure he’d struggle to speak this sentence.
Hercule must battle a series of obstacles as he fights to regain Yvonne’s trust and love. The maid, Marie (Susan Riley Stevens) is more Etienne’s foil, but anyone who flummoxes Etienne makes things harder for the doctor. The would-be dalliance, Suzanne Aubin, is still bent on a fling, and that complicates matters further, as does the lurking Prussian Gustav (Tom Frey). And what farce would be complete without that most evil of villainesses — the mother-in-law? This incarnation, oft unfavorably compared to Medusa, is portrayed in true dowager form by Dale Hodges.
“The Ladies Man” is open now and runs through Aug. 28 at the Peterborough Players. For more information or tickets, call 924-7585 or visit www.peterboroughplayers.org.