A homage to the late, great Katherine Hepburn and her – and Cary Grant’s – sexual sizzle and impeccable comic timing in iconic films Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story, is on offer at The Forge at The Court Theatre in Christchurch. The production has all the hallmarks of 1940s screwball comedy – the dialogue whips along at a cracking pace as poor little rich girl Gloria pouts and wiggles her way across the stage. Her foil is the handsome Jimmy, a struggling writer who is not in the same financial and social stratosphere. The glamorous Gloria bursts into Jimmy’s life and refuses to leave. What follows is a hilarious account of a man who refuses to acknowledge his feelings and a woman who is trying to learn humility. Amy Straker makes a fabulous minx while Keith Adams, in the role of Jimmy, holds her steady.
Noted film director David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago) said that one of the hardest things about directing films was telling the actors how fast they should talk. The directors of the ‘40s screwball comedies knew that the actors should speak as fast as possible so that the audience couldn’t get ahead of the joke. There is no chance of that here – the audience barely has time to draw breath, let alone the actors!
Directed by accomplished actor Ross Gumbley and written by Dunedin playwright Richard Huber, the play’s genre may be seventy years old, but the quick humour and intelligence with which Huber has imbued the production translates well for a modern audience raised on rom-coms that often fall short of the mark.
