I’m a dyed in
the wool screwball comedy fan…and I adore Cary Grant so I couldn’t wait to see
the Wellesley Summer Theatre’s production of HOLIDAY
(playing through Feb. 3rd). There are two famous films of the Philip
Barry play, both delightful but Grant and Katharine Hepburn tear up the 1938
version.
The good news is
that director Nora Hussey has Angela Bilkic in the madcap role of the cheeky
sister who doesn’t give a fig for her family’s wealthy lifestyle. Bilkic is
sensational. She’s sassy. She’s sarcastic. She cracks wise. In short, it’s she,
not her glam sister (Marge Dunn), who is the perfect match for her sister’s
unconventional beau (Lewis Wheeler).
The peculiar
thing is that, aside from Bilkic, Hussey doesn’t have the actors play up the
comedy. HOLIDAY becomes weighty social
commentary. The play still works but now it’s a cautionary tale: The drunken
son (a memorable Will Keary) of a ruthless tycoon (a stern John Davin) wastes
his life inside a bottle while his sisters wait for father’s permission to be
happy.
The focus shifts
from the triumph of a free spirit to the disintegration of a family: One
daughter following in her father’s shallow footsteps, the other fleeing and the
son heading to an early grave. Same script: Add laughter and you get a happy
ending, with the spunky sister escaping right out from under her stunned
father’s nose, leaving her brother with some hope of doing the same.
Either style, HOLIDAY gets in lovely leftist jabs at folks like her
money driven cousin (a seething David Costa) or for that matter, anyone who piles
up money, “aiming to live on the income of his income.”
