Theatre People at Act II Playhouse

With the summer upon us, I hadn’t seen a play in six weeks as many theaters took a hiatus. So, I was glad that Act II Playhouse’s first play of the 2025-26 season had a show on its intimate stage in Ambler in August. “Theatre People” is a play by Paul Slade Smith, author of “The Outsider,” a political farce that ran successfully last season at Act II. This too is billed as a farce. In fact, much of the first act was an absurd, silly comedy and it felt like so many of the tv comedies that I don’t watch. I am so glad I am a reviewer and don’t leave at the act break because the second act was superb!

            It revolves around husband-and-wife playwrights who are meeting with a young novelist Oliver (Carl Nathaniel Smith), to show them the play they created from his novel. But they can’t proceed until he signs a contract with the publisher and the book is produced. They discover that he has not signed it because he is waiting to show it to Margot, after which the romantic story was based. He had met her 18 months earlier and has fantasized about her ever since.

            Margot (Renee McFillin) is coming to this mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, where they each have a room. She has gotten there a day early and is in the adjoining room (set up by the writers, Charlotte (Morgan Everitt) and Arthur (Joe Mallon) Sanders to spur on the romance between Oliver and Margot on which the novel and play were based). But when the Sanders and Oliver arrive, they hear Margot through the door, making love with the dim-witted Victor Pratt (Kevin Toniazzo-Naughton), the man she is to sing with the next night on stage. Oliver is distraught. He wants to tear up the novel.

            The story is actually pretty good, but the over-the-top slapstick is too much and becomes tedious. It’s not necessary to turn every third line into a laugh line with some ridiculous behavior. Arthur’s fast blabbering and Oliver’s overly childish behavior acting like a six-year-old having a tantrum, become annoying. You would never believe that he can write a good novel. Charlotte provides a measure of sanity to hold the story together. I enjoyed her performance the most.

            Why, I ask myself, are they playing it so broadly? Director Tony Braithwaite has been for years, my favorite comedic actor and director. But I think he went too far with this opening act. On the other hand, Braithwaite captures the comedy, the cleverness,and  the nuance of Smith’s writing as the story becomes more intriguing after the intermission. It is fascinating how they connive to fix things. I won’t reveal that here.

            There is one more character I enjoyed. Throughout the play, Olga, the housemaid observes the goings on of these theatre people and offers her funny, and often strange interpretations of what she sees. Sabrina Profitt masters this role she almost seems born to play.

            Maybe you will enjoy and laugh through the whole play as many in the audience did. You will definitely do that in the second act.

“Theatre People” by Paul Slade Smith” at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue., Ambler, PA 19002, 215-654-0200,   act2.org   thru Sept. 7,, 2025