Students restore racy comedy

For many, the Restoration comedy might be an entirely unknown
concept, or just a vague foreign mode of drama linked to images of
limp wrists, bleached wigs and dainty, black-buckled heels sported
by both genders. But in reality, the genre, which spanned from the
late 1600s to early 1700s, was known to entail scandalous affairs
and eyebrow-raising plots involving adultery, sordid schemes
devised in the pursuit of fortune and love triangles that would put
a modern soap opera to shame.

As the UCLA theater department portrayed on Jan. 28-29, George
Farquhar’s play “The Beaux Stratagem” is an
example of the often lurid comedy that prevailed throughout the age
of the English Restoration. The production will also be performed
in the Little Theater on Feb. 3, 5, 11 and 12.

The story revolves around two young men, Thomas Aimwell and
Francis Archer, who arrive in Lichfield seeking that most desirable
aspect of a tender union to a woman: money, with love assuming the
role of the accidental obstacle discovered along the way. They meet
and woo the beautiful (and wealthy) Dorinda and her martially
dissatisfied sister-in-law, Mrs. Sullen, respectively.

Thanks to costume designer Judy Jou, the cast, comprised of
graduate students, dons carefully crafted early 18th-century tiered
gowns and buckled coats, looking every bit the part of a
Restoration ensemble. The simplicity of the five-paneled rotating
set and meager furniture also harkens back to drama of the era,
when multiple scene changes made intricate set designs utterly
impossible to maneuver.

While the crew re-enacts a Restoration play accurately in visual
representation, some innovative tactics were utilized when it came
to the script.

“I had the audacity to rewrite some parts myself because
Restoration drama is so infamously dense,” said Joe Olivieri,
the show’s director. “The original play is three to
four hours long, and also benefited from some
clarification.”

When it came to choosing a script for his cast, Olivieri had a
particular idea in mind, and “Beaux Stratagem” caught
his attention.

“We were looking for a comedy not written by Shakespeare
that would exemplify elevated language,” Olivieri said.
“I chose this one because it is more vibrant and earthy than
other Restoration comedies. It is just less prissy and more
sexy.”

Sexy may seem like a peculiar word to attach to a play written
in 1707, but the bawdy, often lewd sexual references are wrapped in
enough lust to transcend centuries and bring blushes to even a
modern audience. From a man who claims to be a priest attempting to
bury his face in the bosom of an oblivious woman to the married
Mrs. Sullen, who avoids an adulterous encounter only due to a
timely intrusion, Farquhar appears to be making a political
statement with the blatant vulgarity of his play.

“It may be a comedy, but it is obviously very
political,” Olivieri said. “He had much to say about
the roles of women as well as about the order of male inheritance.
Even though Aimwell was brought up wealthy and educated, he will
essentially be left with nothing just because he is the younger
son. Farquhar seemed to think that this system really wasn’t
fair at all.”

A cynical attitude toward marriage is also a strong theme of the
play, championed mainly by the character of Mrs. Sullen, who at one
point claims of a random male, “Even “˜husband’ is
too soft a name for him.”

Coming from a woman during a time when the legal system did not
allow divorce based on incompatibility, the comment would have been
shocking to an 18th century audience.

“(Farquhar) obviously had some very progressive ideas
about marriage that you can see in the do-it-yourself divorce scene
at the end,” Olivieri said.

“Farquhar was a known liberal feminist, and these radical
political views of his are apparent in his literature.”