Word: bouffier
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Robert J. Bouffier and Susan McConnell, in the central roles, begin a little flatly. In Shaw's wonderful opening scene, they seem to be merely reciting their lines, without really savoring them. But they soon warm to their work, so that the final two acts carry all or most of the zing Shaw wrote into them. This is owing more to McConnell, who makes a convincing transition from querulous selfconsciousness to defiant independence. Bouffier's a little too wooden-faced (a kind of Bob Dole for the stage), and doesn't quite tap into the semi-tragic nature...
...play explores the classic romantic triangle but with a twist: The "other woman" is an ectoplasmic ex-wife. Charles Condomine (Robert Bouffier) is a writer researching the occult for his next novel. Together with his second wife, Ruth (Sheila Ferrini), he summons the delightfully eccentric medium Madam Arcati (Mara Clark) to perform a seance in his home. Through some mysterious circumstances, his first wife Elvira (Dee Nelson) appears--and refuses to leave. One disaster after another ensues as Elvira and Ruth fight it out for their husband--fertile ground for Coward to flex his comic muscle...
...Charles, Robert Bouffier achieves moments of comic mastery as he fumbles over how to deal with his two wives. His expressiveness appears most in his delicious handling of lascivious scenes with the ethereal Elvira, but his incompetent-and-clueless-husband act nonetheless gets old quickly...
Director Robert Bouffier seems perfectly aware of the plays divergent strains but is not quite sure of how to resolve them. Bouncing back and forth between the two moods almost makes one more aware of what Wilde wants to accomplish though so that the lack of unity even highlights, rather than obscures, his purpose...
...fault lies in part with Bouffier, who doesn't give the show the high-speed pacing it demands, and in part with the show itself--which may be too long for its own good...