SummerStage’s Farce Beneath the Stars

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Photo by Kimberly Fudali

SummerStage of Delafield's 'Boeing Boeing'

SummerStage of Delafield's 'Boeing Boeing'

Marc Camoletti’s early ’60s farce Boeing Boeing playfully rushes through a whimsical evening outdoors in SummerStage of Delafield’s production. Director Ralph Frattura coaxes an enjoyable cast through the many twists. and turns in a frantic little comedy that cascades into the night in the idyllic outdoor stage at Lapham Peak. Scott Fudali is humorously fearless as Bernard an American living in Paris who is engaged to three different unwitting airline hostesses. Michael Stickney plays to an altogether more anxious and passionate end of bachelorhood as Bernard’s old friend Robert. The two men are close enough to each other that Barnard has no difficulty telling Robert about his three fiancees. Things, of course, get quite complicated when all three of them quite unexpectedly find themselves in the same apartment at more or less the same time. 

Alexa Farrell aspires towards comically self-assured confidence as Bernard’s American fiancee from New York. Brigid O’Brien smartly wields an impassioned and oddly dominant vulnerability in the role of Robert’s German fiancee Gretchen. Ariana Manghera summons a remarkably graceful energy as Robert’s Italian fiancee Gabriella. Laura Larson capably rounds-out the cast in the role of Robert’s ever-reliable French maid. Larson has a steadiness about her as servant who has clearly been through a lot and is thus on the verge of walking out when things get hopelessly complicated. Typically, the four women in the ensemble are called-upon to amp-up the cultural stereotypes of their various nationalities for comic effect. Frattura seems to have allowed the four women a bit more room to establish thought-out personalities in a fun and enjoyable evening of comedy. 

SummerStage of Delafield’s Boeing Boeing runs through Sept. 2 at Lapham Peak State Park, on W329 N846 County Highway C. For more information, visit SummerStage online.