The play
Lettice and Lovage by British playwright Peter Shaffer was basically written as a showcase for Dame Maggie Smith, and she fittingly won a Tony for it in 1990. It's a very funny and very British play and has two great roles for women over 50, and a real live cat on stage, all great things. The one challenging thing is that it's a three-act two-intermission play, a rarity these days, but as long as you're aware going into it that you'll be sitting in the theater for three and a half hours or more, it's a lot of fun. Theatre in the Round is staging it in their 73rd season, dedicating the production to #TCTheater actor
Maggie Bearmon Pistner who starred in their 2001 production and passed away in 2023. They've cast a couple of great actors as this buddy comedy duo, so take a nap or have a coffee before the show, get up to get a snack at intermission, and settle in for an entertaining evening (or afternoon if you're a morning person like me).
Lettice and Lovage continues through April 27.
This play is long, so I'll try to make this review brief. It's almost like three related one-act plays focusing on the characters of Lettice Douffet, an eccentric history buff and tour guide with a penchant for making up stories to entertain her listeners, and Lotte Schoen, her stern and straight-laced boss who works for a historical society. In Act I, we are treated to Lettice's ever more exciting stories, like a fish tale with the fish getting larger in each telling, which prompts Lotte to fire her. In Act II, Lotte visits Lettice to deliver information about a job she might be suited for (because finding a new job as a woman over 50 has never been easy), and they become unlikely friends whilst enjoying a Tudor drink that includes the herb lovage (hence the title). In Act III, we find out to what extreme and hilarious lengths their friendship has gone, that results in one of them being arrested.
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Lotte (Jackie Schluter-Johnson) and Lettice (Jean Wolff)
enjoying some Lovage (photo by Anya Magnuson) |
Duck Washington directs the play with much humor and lightness, but also allowing room for the more poignant moments as the women discuss real life issues. Despite the extreme length, it never drags or feels tedious, rather like three hour-long episodes of your favorite comedy, consumed in one sitting. Jean Wolff is an absolute delight as Lettice, making her endlessly elaborate stories more and more entertaining. Her gestures, facial expressions, and movement around the space are spot on and hilarious. She's well matched in Jackie Schluter-Johnson as Lotte, amusingly stern and horrified by Lettice, revealing a softness as their relationship continues. This show really is a two-hander for much of its length, and these two are the perfect duo. And they do get great support from the ensemble, particularly Simone Reno as Lotte's giggling secretary and Rick Lamers as Lettice's lawyer, playing straight man to the comedy in Act III. The ensemble also includes humans Andrew Troth, Helen Donnay, Adri Mehra, and Allison True doing a lot with a little dialogue, and the sweetest, prettiest, and best behaved cat Neon as Lettice's precious Felina.
The in-the-round space is well used; the script has several references to staircases, and there are several to choose from in the space, which is where much of the first half of the first act takes place. We then move to Lotte's sparse office, and finish the play in Lettice's basement apartment filled with eclectic historical pieces (and cat toys) and featuring a fully constructed entrance that leads to a stairway up to the street. The play was written in the late '80s and that's presumably when it is set, judging by the corded telephones and the costumes, Lettice in some charmingly eccentric outfits and Lotte more business like. (Set design by Cory Skold and costume design by CJ Mantel.)
If you're looking for a good old-fashioned comedy, but one with a bit of substance as it features two women at an age at which society begins to tell us that our worth is declining, and how they find friendship and purpose in spite of that,
head to Theatre in the Round in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis. Just make sure you're well rested and/or caffeinated, you'll want to stay awake for this one.
