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Jitters

JITTERS by David French, directed by Ted Dykstra (Soulpepper). At the Young Centre (55 Mill). Runs to July 24, Monday-Saturday 7:30 pm, matinees Saturday and July 7 at 1:30 pm. $37-$75, some stu/rush tickets. 416-866-8666. See listing. Rating: NNN


Rampant insecurities and overweening egos drive David French’s backstage comedy Jitters. What’s most impressive about director Ted Dykstra’s production for Soulpepper is that we can laugh at the people involved in the premiere of a play and every once care about them, too.

Covering the period from the first preview to the day after opening of The Care And Treatment Of Roses, a new Canadian work by playwright Robert (Mike Ross), the play provides us with the tantrums, fears, hissy fits and cool-downs of a troupe of theatre artists. The cast is headed by the magisterial Jessica (Diane D’Aquila) and her temperamental, overbearing Irish-Canadian co-star Patrick (C. David Johnson), working with long-time actor Phil (Oliver Dennis) and newcomer Tom (Noah Reid).

Making matters more intense is that a New York producer is coming up to see the show. If he likes it, he might bring to the Broadway – with or without the original cast.

Director George (Kevin Bundy) does his best to soothe their neuroses along with those of the playwright, who’s already had one success and isn’t sure he can create a second one. George also has to deal with his rigid stage manager Nick (Jordan Pettle) but has a little help from assistants Peggy (Sarah Wilson) and Susi (Abena Malika).

It’s the 70s, so Patrick Clark’s design is all bellbottoms, stacked heels, loud prints and wide-patterned wallpaper. In a nod to the original production at the Tarragon Theatre, the walls in the dressing room of the second act are scribbled with the names of period Canadian artists, including Tarragon founder Bill Glassco and performers Charmion King (who starred in the first production of Jitters), Brenda Donohue, Gordon Pinsent, Richard Monette, Jerry Franken and Richard Donat.

The script also has a built-in joke. French sends up his own Mercer saga of plays by writing a play-within-the-play filled with turgid, wildly heightened emotions that push the idea of kitchen-sink drama. The actors play it like ripe melodrama, getting all the laughs French intended.

The production starts slowly (at least at the preview I saw), but there’s powerful chemistry onstage by the end of the first act. D’Aquila is alternately helpless and imperious as the former Broadway and West End diva who hasn’t been onstage for a few years, while Johnson makes an excellent foil for her. Their bitchy fights are among the best parts of the show.

Dennis is first rate as the self-centred Phil, as concerned about getting properly fitting shoes (his feet are different sizes) and needing a prompter for security as he is about being recognized as an “artiste”. Bundy’s George, a peacemaker among the various factions, does a good job of balancing all the personalities in his theatre.

Reid’s ingénue has the right amount of starry-eyed worship of more experienced actors and a drive to make it big, while Ross brings a quiet frenzy to the playwright who doesn’t want a comma changed in his script. Pettle’s touchy Nick, determined that every rule be obeyed, gets laughs as an unsmiling, brittle disciplinarian.

Along the way, the characters reveal some emotional truths that they tend to keep well hidden early on. By the play’s end – not a strong part of the writing, by the way – we finally care about them rather than simply laugh at them. It’s clear that French has affection for them, too.[rssbreak]

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