“My Cousin Rachel’s” chief claim to remembrance is that its 1952 film version marked the Hollywood debut of fiery Welsh actor Richard Burton.
Daphne du Maurier’s original novel, set on the stormy Cornwall coast of England in the late 1890s, provided a good role for Burton, who portrayed Philip Ashley, a young, headstrong, passionate member of the gentry besotted with love for a beguiling Italian woman, his benefactor’s widow, who becomes more mysterious and seductive as the story progresses.
Diana Morgan’s stage adaptation, which confines all the action to a drawing room, seems a strange bit of theater for The Free Associates, a troupe best known for its freewheeling satirical shows; but, having made the decision to stick to this turgid tale, the company has plunged into the mystery romance with teeth bared and bosoms heaving.
The production, mounted at Live Bait Theater under Susan Gaspar’s direction, would do a high school drama society proud; and, in its innocent way, it does hold your interest on what the dickens is going to happen next.
The actors generally play the suspense story straight, although at times they seem ready to uncork a winking spoof. This is particularly true of Calvin Haines’ droll portrayal of the imposing butler Seecombe, and it crops up in bits of dialogue so zanily placed it’s hard to tell if the actors are putting us on or just mouthing du Maurier’s florid-genteel style. What is one to make of the scene in which Joe Reilly, as the hero’s prim lawyer, rhapsodizes on country fairs, where there is “intense rivalry over who has grown the best pumpkin”?
And how does one take the moment when Jennifer Hunt, as the chipper young woman who really knows what’s best for Philip, stumbles into a bitter fight on his 25th birthday and cautions him, demurely, “No one should quarrel on their birthday”?
Scott Antonucci, sufficiently callow and handsome, although a little stiff, is the lovesick hero; and Adrienne Smith, dark and buxom and with an Italian accent that turns “difficult” into “deefeecult,” is the irresistible widow Rachel.
Lest fans of Free Associates fear they have abandoned their satires for scripted shows such as “Rachel,” the company assures us they are even now preparing “Little House Quite Contrary,” a sendup of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, for an impending opening.
And none too soon.
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“My Cousin Rachel” continues at the Live Bait Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St., through Oct. 14. $17.50