Victorian’s ‘Egad’ is mixed bag

February 13, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Knock-down, drag-out farce is as notoriously difficult to stage as pulpy, purplish melodrama. And with rare exceptions (e.g., the “As the Stomach Turns” skits on Carol Burnett’s late, great CBS variety show), most attempts to merge the two disciplines inevitably end in catastrophe.

“Egad! The Woman in White,” the new Victorian Players’ production that opened Friday night to a packed, enthusiastic house, tries valiantly — occasionally desperately — to make a silk purse out of scenarist Tim Kelly’s sow’s ear of a play, but with mixed results at best. Based on a deservedly obscure book by 19th-century literary aspirant Wilkie Collins (better known as the “Poor Man’s Charles Dickens”), “Egad!” piles on the outrageous dramaturgy of classic melodrama to such a preposterously exaggerated degree that the only proper response is laughter.

Yet, as directed by Brandon Martin, the relentless jocularity of Kelly’s wink-wink, nudge-nudge text inevitably becomes a tad self-defeating. It’s hard to giggle, let alone laugh, when you’re being poked in the ribs with a croquet mallet from start to finish. While farce is hardly the subtlest of comic forms, a little restraint might have done wonders to amp up the mirth quotient.

Sir Percival Glyde (Bill Finley), the play’s thoroughly disreputable, eminently hissable protagonist, will stop at nothing to accrue an ill-gained fortune. He marries wealthy — and considerably younger — heiress Laura (promising newcomer Tanya Temelkoff), much to the consternation of her devoted gentleman admirer, Walter Hartright (Cody L. Nevel), and cousin Marian (Alisha Kopcsos). But when the sepulchral “Woman in White” (also played by Temelkoff) begins making regularly scheduled appearances, the die is cast for Percival’s inevitable comeuppance.

Also figuring prominently in the overheated action are Percival’s scoundrel of a lawyer (Bill Nibert) and dim-bulb servant (Kim Nevel channelling Edith Massey from John Waters’ ’70s movies); femme fatale Countess Fosco (Barbara Malizia in the evening’s most sustained comic performance); loony-tunes busy-body Mrs. Catherick (Audrey Allen); a hypochondriacal old coot (Monica Beasley-Martin in none-too-convincing drag); insane asylum matriarch Miss Peach (indispensable cut-up Regina Reynolds); and the “Boo-Hiss Girls” (Janiah Beasley-Martin, Daja Beasley-Williams and Jala Beasley-Williams) who solicit audience participation with their revolving sandwich boards.

Besides the general heavy-handedness of the staging, there were some technical glitches that marred the opening-night performance. (Brandon) Martin’s lighting design was distractingly murky at times, and there wasn’t nearly enough stylistic variance in Dr. Thomas Copeland’s sets. (It was hard to distinguish an asylum cell from Percival’s library without consulting the playbill.) Pam Sacui’s costumes were generally aces, however, and did a nice job of establishing the late-19th-century milieu.

“Egad! The Woman in White” runs through Feb. 27 at the Victorian Players. For reservations, call 330-746-5455.