Word: wishfort
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...protagonist is Mirabell (Joseph “Jack” Cutmore-Scott ’10), who loves Millamant (Olga Zhulina ’09), whose aunt is Lady Wishfort (Alison H. Rich ’09). Wishfort has to be married before she will give her blessing (and her fortune) to the couple, so Mirabell decides to have an already-married servant pretend to be a lord and court...
Wishfort’s daughter and co-conspirator with Mirabell is Mrs. Fainall (Rachel E. Flynn ’09), whose husband is having an affair with Mrs. Marwood (Sophie C. Kargman ’08), a woman who is trying to thwart Mirabell. Wishfort wants Millament to marry Sir Willful Witwoud (Rob D. Salas ’08), a loud and crass gentryman from the countryside, whose brother (Barry A. Shafrin ’09) lives in the city and has become a full-time fop who helps Mirabell with his schemes. Got all that...
...particular, Rich portrays the hapless, desperate-for-marriage, pinheaded Wishfort to great comedic effect, as does Salas as the uncouth, oversexed Sir Willful. Rich plays Wishfort’s awkwardness amazingly, scrambling over tables, jumping into arms, and overturning her huge hoop skirts in misguided attempts at seductiveness. Meanwhile, Salas barks out his lines about seeing “foreign parts” and the foppery of the city, swaggering around like a drill sergeant after about ten drinks too many and stealing every scene he?...
Birnbaum usually has the actors convey the emotions of a scene at a high emotional pitch, which is hilarious in scenes with Wishfort or Sir Willful. It is just as powerful in a scene where Mirabell and Millamant yell over each other to determine the conditions upon which they will marry, and ultimately rip open their clothes to sign their contract on each others’ backs...