Although perhaps better suited for a grayer audience, Noel Coward's Fallen Angels, produced this weekend by Theatre Hopkins, is an entertaining way to spend two hours. The cast of six lit up the stage with their energy and the audience never stopped laughing.
Julia Sterroll (Laurel Burggraf) and Jane Banbury (Molly Moores) are two young women, living in London with their husbands of five years, Fred Sterroll (Jason Hentrich) and Willy Banbury (Stephen Gaede).
The two decide that they have reached a point in their marriages at which they are no longer "in love" (a concept that the slightly older audience seemed to be more familiar with), and that they will allow a man with whom they both had an affair to come visit.
The play is a snapshot of the lives of the two feisty women and their unassuming, respectful and very boring husbands.
Saunders (Lynda McClary) presents the amusing and naively imposing character of the Sterrolls' maid. She has been all over the world and has worked for many types of people, a fact that particularly bothers Julia, perhaps because of her lack of experience in the real world.
Julia and Jane get very drunk and convince themselves that their lives lack that spark and passion they once had, and the funniest moments in the play occur during their over-dramatized portrayals of lonely housewives who lead dull existences.
The expectations that the men had for their wives at the time are revealed throughout the play, and as you laugh at the stupidity of the women, you also find yourself feeling sorry for them and the lives they are forced to lead.
The drunken and slapstick humor increases as the play continues, and we get a better impression of the characters' true attitudes and personalities.
The handsome, long-lost Frenchman named Maurice (Jonas Grey) - and his ability to convince the women's husbands of his "pure" intentions - make for a belly full of laughs and a period of excitement as to whether the women will get away with their intended affairs or not.
Meanwhile, the unremarkable, lifeless-yet-loving characters, Fred and Willy, are played with remarkable exactness and a perfect pitch of awkwardness.
The two hour production could have been just as good, if not better, had it only lasted one hour. But judging by the audience's heightened level of amusement as time went on, the female characters' endless analyses of their lives must have been somewhat successful.
As a young viewer, I had trouble relating to the monotonous lives of the women and their desire to break free and be sexual beings. This is not to say that their witty portrayals of their daily struggles are not intriguing, but my lack of true understanding may have been the reason I was one of the only young people in the audience.
Fallen Angels is a thoroughly enjoyable production with actors that know their roles, and look adorable playing them.
The six of them made all the difference in the potentially drawn-out, two-hour show with their never-ending energy that kept the crowd (most of them) on the edges of their seats.
Considering the approval of the audience and the talent of the actors, Fallen Angels is a definite success.
