No Sets, Just Strong Acting in Romantic Comedy ‘Cécile’

×

Expand

Photo by Troy Freund Photography

A.J. Magoon, Matt Specht and Caitlin Kujawski Compton in Boulevard theatre's ‘Cecile’.

A.J. Magoon, Matt Specht and Caitlin Kujawski Compton in Boulevard theatre's ‘Cécile’.

The Boulevard Theatre welcomes the warmer weather of March with a cozy, little staged reading of a romantic period comedy by Jean Anouilh. Cécile or the School for Fathers is performed without significant set, costuming or props. It’s a cute, little romance with a couple of anxious couples nervously moving through the motions of manners in a more awkward era. 

Caitlin Kujawski-Compton stars as the ever-confident domestic servant Araminthe who deftly juggles the concerns of an amorous employer, the young woman she’s looking after and the young man who has fallen for her. Anouilh’s tightly woven mid-20th century script doesn’t give the cast a great deal of room to move around in, but director David Flores does an excellent job of maintaining a sharp sense of wild energy in and around the precision of the script. Sarah Donofrio wields respectable cleverness about her in the title role of Cécile—the young woman Araminthe had been hired to serve. She may not appear nearly as central to the comedy as she should, but Donofrio shines quite efficiently as the young woman around which all of the rest of the action of the comedy revolves. 

×

Expand

Photo by Troy Freund Photography

Matt Specht, Caitlin Kujawski Compton, Michael Pocaro, A.J. Magoon, & Sarah Donofrio in Boulevard Theatre's ‘Cécile’.

Full cast Matt Specht, Caitlin Kujawski Compton, Michael Pocaro, A.J. Magoon, and Sarah Donofrio in Boulevard Theatre's ‘Cécile’.

Matt Specht maintains a degree of poise as Araminthe’s employer Monsieur Orlas. Specht’s comic sense of poise and timing work well against Kujawski-Compton’s wit. A.J. Magoon lends a relatively youthful reflection on Specht’s passions in the role of Cécile’s suitor Chevalier. The intricate, little plot echoes so much from so many other romantic comedies. It’s all a delicate dance of passions and improprieties that spin themselves around matters of the heart in sharp clarity that warms a small stage on the Upper East Side in mid-March.

Boulevard Theatre’s production of Cécile, Or The School For Fathers runs through March 18 at Plymouth Church, 2717 E. Hampshire St. For more information, visit milwaukeeboulevardtheatre.com/upcoming.