The Pleasure of His Company
If you don't look too closely, this drawing room comedy's a bauble and, though talky, somewhat entertaining. After abandoning his wife and daughter in 1943, Biddleford "Pogo" Poole has come back to San Francisco for his daughter's wedding - to talk her out of it and take her on the road to adventure. The play's so undemanding you'd be surprised that the authors (Samuel Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner) wrote the script for Hitchcock's Vertigo. Nonetheless, it's hard to overlook emotional gaps (why would a daughter, who's only received three letters from him in 15 years, romanticize her absent father?); a slanted opposition between leaden, stay-at-home Philistines and hit-the-road cultured elites; and a male lead running not toward adventure but away from adulthood. In 1958, when the play premiered, Pogo would have scored points for daring. Today he's exhibit A of the "Peter Pan Syndrome," a spoiled brat who wants not his daughter but another Wendy. The Old Globe's production has more reasons for skipping than seeing it. Two of the latter: elegant Patrick Page almost succeeds in sweeping Pogo's foibles under the rug (at opening-night curtain, those who stood applauded his performance), and Alexander Dodge's set, the majestic living room of a Victorian mansion. Nine-foot windows overlook the Golden Gate Bridge. Intricate polished molding makes the entire room look sculpted. Best of show: in Act One, York Kennedy's lighting crafts an incrementally roseate sunset.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, August 10, 2008
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm & 7pm |
| Tuesdays, 7pm |
| Wednesdays, 7pm |
| Thursdays, 8pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 2pm & 8pm |