Spring Break
Thornton Wilder and Center Stage are a perfect match
Issue date: 10/2/08
CenterStage's current mainstage production revives the much-loved spirit of the fading genre of the farce. There's just something about mistaken identity, misunderstanding, over-the-top emotion and a happy ending that enchants an audience.
Baltimore CenterStage's production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker preserves all that we love about the farce form in Wilder's tone and perspective with the dash of philosophy - usually satirizing middle-class values like thrift, sobriety, or prudence - that he couldn't help throwing into the play.
The Matchmaker's general story shares a lot with most farces. It opens with an artist, Ambrose Kemper, trying to convince Horace Vandergelder, a Yonkers shopkeeper, to let him marry Ermengarde, Horace's niece. Horace refuses, saying Ambrose is flighty and foolish and that he won't be able to support Ermengard.
He himself, however, is looking to remarry after his first wife's death and is relying on Dolly Levi, the titular matchmaker, to help him do so. Dolly wants Horace for herself. Meanwhile, Horace's employees, Cornelius and Barnaby, desert the shop they've been told to mind in order to have an adventure in New York. Despite their best efforts to avoid one another and follow through with their particular plans, Dolly brings the all the other characters crashing together, with hilarious results.
The Matchmaker can trace its origins to John Oxenford's one-act "A Day Well Spent." This version contains only the story of Bolt and Mizzle, the direct ancestors of Cornelius and Barnaby, and none of the philosophical asides that permeate The Matchmaker. Oxenford's play was adapted by Johann Nestroy to a Viennese setting, and introduces the sub-plot of Ambrose and Ermengarde, albeit not with those names. Nestroy's version also includes satirical songs and asides upon which Wilder would later draw.
Wilder adapted these plays into The Merchant of Yonkers - which he would rewrite as The Matchmaker after The Merchant failed on Broadway - in 1938, transporting the story to America and adding the character and sub-plot of Dolly Levi.
Baltimore CenterStage's production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker preserves all that we love about the farce form in Wilder's tone and perspective with the dash of philosophy - usually satirizing middle-class values like thrift, sobriety, or prudence - that he couldn't help throwing into the play.
The Matchmaker's general story shares a lot with most farces. It opens with an artist, Ambrose Kemper, trying to convince Horace Vandergelder, a Yonkers shopkeeper, to let him marry Ermengarde, Horace's niece. Horace refuses, saying Ambrose is flighty and foolish and that he won't be able to support Ermengard.
He himself, however, is looking to remarry after his first wife's death and is relying on Dolly Levi, the titular matchmaker, to help him do so. Dolly wants Horace for herself. Meanwhile, Horace's employees, Cornelius and Barnaby, desert the shop they've been told to mind in order to have an adventure in New York. Despite their best efforts to avoid one another and follow through with their particular plans, Dolly brings the all the other characters crashing together, with hilarious results.
The Matchmaker can trace its origins to John Oxenford's one-act "A Day Well Spent." This version contains only the story of Bolt and Mizzle, the direct ancestors of Cornelius and Barnaby, and none of the philosophical asides that permeate The Matchmaker. Oxenford's play was adapted by Johann Nestroy to a Viennese setting, and introduces the sub-plot of Ambrose and Ermengarde, albeit not with those names. Nestroy's version also includes satirical songs and asides upon which Wilder would later draw.
Wilder adapted these plays into The Merchant of Yonkers - which he would rewrite as The Matchmaker after The Merchant failed on Broadway - in 1938, transporting the story to America and adding the character and sub-plot of Dolly Levi.
Be the first to comment on this story