THEATER REVIEW
“Private Lives”
Grade: B-
Through Feb. 8. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. $22-$30. Stage Door Players, 5339 Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody. 770-396-1726, www.stagedoorplayers.net.
Bottom line: All dressed up with nowhere to go.
Simply put, you’ve got to hand it to Stage Door Players artistic director Robert Egizio, who’s now in his 11th season at the helm of the enduring Dunwoody troupe (founded in 1974).
The difference between “community” and “professional” theater can be a fine line, but it’s to his credit that the enterprising Egizio has made admirable attempts to cross that line in the past few years — stepping up his game and taking things to a new level, if not in terms of reinventing the company’s decidedly mainstream bent, then at least in terms of investing it with a higher caliber of acting talent (namely, card-carrying members of the Actors’ Equity union).
That isn’t to suggest that one’s union affiliation always equates to one’s acting ability. Indeed, there are any number of non-Equity actors in town who are just as resourceful as any number of Equity actors.
At the same time, though, even the most formidable thespians can accomplish only so much, depending on their material. To cite two Stage Door shows from last season, tired old standards like “The Odd Couple” and “On Golden Pond” will be tired old standards, however qualified the contributions of local veterans like Alan Kilpatrick (in the former) or Jackie Prucha and Theo Harness (in the latter).
Egizio’s current staging of “Private Lives,” British playwright Noel Coward’s oft-told 1930 comedy of questionable manners, receives a legitimate boost from the casting of Atlanta luminaries Mark and Tess Malis Kincaid — to say nothing of an added kick from the fact that they’re married in real life.
They co-star as stiff-upper-lipped ex-spouses who reluctantly rekindle their tempestuous love affair while on their second honeymoons with others (Rachel Garner as his blushing younger bride and Joe Sykes as her bombastic younger groom). The actress Kincaid delivers a more relaxed and refreshing performance than the actor Kincaid, who tends to seem a bit out of his element with all the polished posturing and cultivated quipping in the play.
Still, whether as fellow actors or as longtime husband and wife, the expertise and experience they bring with them clearly emanates and frequently enlivens a production that’s fairly static on the whole (even one physical kerfuffle between them is too sluggishly choreographed).
"It doesn't suit women to be promiscuous," he intones. To which she retorts, "It doesn't suit men for women to be promiscuous." When he blows her a kiss, she leans to get out of its way. And their silent two-minute "timeouts" from so much bickering are some of the show's funniest moments.
For considerably longer than Egizio has been using Equity actors, Stage Door’s resident set designer Chuck Welcome has been working on a par with many of the city’s bigger and better-financed theaters. On typically impressive display here, adjoining hotel patios in the opening scene detach and rotate to reveal a movable apartment in the next.
In the end, Egizio’s good intentions aren’t quite enough. That he earns a proverbial “A” for his ambitious efforts of late doesn’t necessarily make a play like “Private Lives” all that ambitious.
