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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Multimedia Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Readers' Choice Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend March 5, 2007 SOU's 'Hotel Paradiso' provides over-the-top humor By Richard Moeschl Mail Tribune The set on stage in a farce is often one of the play's main characters. It's always there, providing the other actors with something constant to relate to when all the rest of the world is coming unglued. In the case of Southern Oregon University's production of Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallieres' "Hotel Paradiso," which opened Friday, the scenic design by Sean O'Skea plays the leading role in a cast of 19 excellent performers. In Acts 1 and 3, the scene is the expansively ornate living room of Angelique (Amanda Jane Long) and Benedict (Orion Bradshaw) Boniface. There are three levels of platforms in this faux art-nouveau room. The colors range from coral to cantaloupe trimmed in turquoise. And there are lots of doors which will get plenty of use. Through the French doors upstage we get tantalizing glimpses of Paris. It is a place that Benedict desperately wants to visit. But he is a prisoner of his overbearing and oversized wife whom he calls by the names of different fruits, "My little nectarine," being among them. Advertisement Since this is a farce, Benedict will soon find himself hopelessly entangled in a web of his own weaving with Marcelle (Lucinda M. Bedell) the wife of his friend Cot (Hardy Pinnell). The two conspire to get back at Cot for the way he treats her by arranging a tryst in the seedy Hotel Paradiso. Naturally, unbeknownst to them, Cot is staying at the very same hotel that night on business. So are practically everyone else in the cast for one bizarre reason or another. And they all run in to each other — literally — with various degrees of recognition and collision. The hotel is managed by the wily Italian, Anniello (Jimmy L. Garcia), and his flustered bellhop, Georges (Jonathan Dyrud). Bradshaw and Garcia played the two hilarious slaves in SOU's production last season of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." They're at it again. The two understand the rules of farce. The comedy is physical, over the top and in dead earnest. Every facial expression, every gesture of the body is played with absolute mastery and drives the audience into peals of laughter. The women in this play also understand what the genre expects of them — histrionics — and Long and Bedell deliver them in spades. "Make a scene," Benedict tells his Marcelle, and she does, right on cue. There is always a little hankie in her hands: Something to wring while the tension ratchets up and something to cry into when she is beside herself — which is most of the time. Pinnell gives us a put-upon Cot who is thrust unwillingly and unwittingly into the madness of the goings on and insists on keeping his badly bruised — literally — sense of decorum. Allen G. Adams' Martin, Ryan West's Maxime and Ashley Scallon's Victoire contribute delightful doses of further zany complications to the already convoluted situation. The acting is stronger than the text, which suffers from being an English rendering of a decidedly French art form. According to most sources, the French re-invented farce back in the middle ages and perfected it in the ensuing centuries. Feydeau was one of its greatest purveyors, along with Moliere. Peter Glenville's English translation is a bit stodgy and lacks some of the clever word play that is the counterpoint to the physical comedy. The beautifully executed costumes by Heather Moore and just the right touches of lighting design by Craig Hudson help enhance the mood of this venerable period piece. Farce keeps things moving at a pace that continually speeds up, driving the characters toward bigger disasters, further absurdities and increasingly more implausible alibis before life can return to "normal." Director Dennis Smith understands this comic convention and keeps his actors zipping madly along from one excruciatingly ridiculous moment to the next. And the audience with them. "Hotel Paradiso" continues weekends through March 10 at SOU's Center Stage Theatre on Mountain Avenue in Ashland. Call 552-6348. Reach Tempo Editor Richard Moeschl at 776-4486 or [email protected] Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Online Casino Reviews Trunks, Footlocker Fundraisers UK Homeowner Loans Casinos Canada Cord Blood Banking Discount Hotel Reservations Texas Electric Choice Compare Electric rates in Texas Windermere Van Vleet Men's Clothing Debt Help New Hampshire Primary