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Culture Theatre

The Guardsman

THE GUARDSMAN by Ferenc Molnár, directed by László Marton (Soulpepper). Young Centre (55 Mill). Runs in rep to October 24. $28-$68, rush $20, youth $5. 416-866-8666, soulpepper.ca. See listing. Rating: NNN


Imagine a cat-and-mouse game where it’s hard to tell who’s the feline and who’s the rodent.

But that’s the point of Ferenc Molnár’s The Guardsman, a comedy with a thin edge of cynicism helmed for Soulpepper by regular guest director László Marton.

While the Hungarian director gives a sense of lightness to his countryman’s script, at times the work’s bubbly champagne quality goes flat.

Celebrated actors Nandor (Albert Schultz) and Ilona (Kristen Thomson) have been

married for six months. He suspects her of wanting to stray, and her history and general flirtatiousness suggests that infidelity is quite possible. Nandor puts his wife to the test: he announces he’ll be out of town for three days, sends her flowers and a note as the guardsman of the title and sets out to woo her.

Taking their friend Bela (Diego Matamoros) into his confidence, he disguises himself, visits Ilona at home and follows her to the opera. But whether or not Nandor puts his jealousy to rest is debatable, for we’re frequently unsure of who’s toying with whom. Does she recognize him or not?

That doubt gives a delicious tension to the multifaceted relationship, which Schultz and Thomson play with a combination of elegance and bitchiness. As the egotistical, flattery- loving Nandor, Schultz frequently attacks with insults Kristen’s Ilona parries with a light touch. With the guardsman, she’s more seductive and mercurial, inviting and then repulsing his advances, while he adopts a soft-voiced stance that suggests he’s unsure of intruding on her respectability.

There are scenes when the backing-and-forthing go on too long, with decreasing comic return, but the subtleties in the couple’s relationship are sometimes fascinating.

Schultz and Matamoros have a chemistry, too the contrast between the acerbic Bela and the pique-prone Nandor is a good one. Dawn Greenhalgh is sometimes officious, sometimes obsequious as a former servant who’s moved up to the rank of Ilona’s surrogate mother.

jonkap@nowtoronto.com [rssbreak]

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