THEATRE REVIEW:
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU

JOHN COULBOURN,
Special to TorSun
29 APR 2012
R: 2.5/5



Pictured: Krystin Pellerin, Gregory Prest

TORONTO - Unless one is a botanist, one might never know whether or not the stately sycamore tree produces nuts, but one has only to visit the theatre to know that the Sycamore family tree yields them by the bushel. The Sycamore family, of course, is at the very heart of YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, the enduring Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy created in 1937 by playwrights George F. Kaufman and Moss Hart and subsequently transformed into an Academy Award-winning movie. The story is relatively simple — or as simple as a story about relatives can ever be. Under the benign eye of an eccentric patriarch, the Sycamore home is fairly filled to the rafters with artists and other harmless eccentrics, brought together to create a sunny view of the depression-era world of the ’30s that offers comforting, if charmingly dated, resonance in a world facing similar problems three quarters of a century later.

Which is reason enough to celebrate the fact that YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU has returned to a local stage after an absence of more than a decade, brought to life in a new production from Soulpepper which opened at the Young Centre last week. Directed by Joseph Ziegler, with the venerable (and delightfully volatile) Eric Peterson in the role of the Sycamore family patriarch — a man who spends his time collecting snakes and attending commencement exercises while side-stepping bothersome little things like income tax — it is a production that offers elusive glimpses of the genius of a collaboration determined to celebrate the ‘functional’ in the family dysfunctional.

As the story goes, Peterson’s Grandpa hasn’t worked in years, but his home is still a hive of activity, filled with his children, grandchildren and the occasional hanger-on, like Mr. De Pinna (Michael Simpson), who dropped by to deliver ice eight years ago and got so caught up making fireworks in the basement with Paul (Derek Boyes), Grandpa’s son, that he never left. Meanwwhile, Penny, Paul’s wife (played by Nancy Palk), has given up painting to take up playwrighting, after a typewriter was mistakenly delivered to the door. Her daughter, Essie (Patricia Fagan), meanwhile devotes herself to dance and candy-making, while her husband, Ed (Mike Ross), dabbles in printing and music. In other words, everyone is as eccentric as all-get-out, except for daughter Alice (Krystin Pellerin) who has gone outside the home to work and fallen madly in love with her boss’ son, played by Gregory Prest.

The two agree to marry — but when his up-tight parents (played by John Jarvis and Brenda Robins) come to call, chaos ensues, with an extensive supporting cast that includes Raquel Duffy, Diego Matamoros, Sabryn Rock, Andre Sills and Maria Vacratsis, among others, adding fuel to the fire.

As usual, Ziegler proves a dab hand at finding the emotional heart of a piece, capturing the familial bond that binds the clan Sycamore and making the most of the lovely romance brought to life by Pellerin and Prest. Unfortunately, he’s not nearly so successful at building and sustaining comedic momentum. As they move about Christina Poddubiuk’s un-necessarily cramped set, everyone on the stage seems to be not only too aware of their individual eccentricities, but they seem to be cultivating more as well — and that spells disaster for a play that extolls the virtues of simply being oneself. And as a result, Ziegler never succeeds in finding the comic sweet-spot of the play, proving conclusively that when a heart-warming comedy doesn’t catch fire on stage, you can’t take it with you when you leave.