"HOLIDAY," Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at Victory Gardens Theater
BY LUCIA MAURO
If you’re concerned that Philip Barry’s 1928 play revolving around the grievances of an upper-crust New York family has nothing to do with real life today, you can rest assured that the writer’s tastes far exceed caviar, champagne and long cigarette holders. This comedy of aristocratic ill manners, set in the wealthy Seton family household (and foreshadowing the stock market crash of 1929), unveils with devastating directness the gilded cage of expectation within which high society perches.
No mere playground of swank industrial barons, "Holiday" – receiving a sophisticated staging by Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at Victory Gardens – questions how individuals’ free spirits can buckle under the weight of excessive possessions and obligations.
Set during the Christmas season, but in no way a typical Yuletide play, "Holiday" centers on the impending marriage of self-made businessman Johnny Case to the social hierarchy-conscious Julia Seton, daughter of the equally status-aware Edward.
Self-doubt snakes into the story when Johnny suddenly learns of all the rules and tests associated with marrying into one of America’s select "royal" families. He finds his philosophy of working hard and retiring early to appreciate all the intangible gifts life has to offer better matched to Julia’s rebellious sister, Linda (who finds herself falling in love with Johnny). Linda often confides in her all-knowing alcoholic brother, Ned, who represents the numbing effects of this superficial, obligation-heavy lifestyle.
On a larger scale, "Holiday" celebrates freedom of choice and taking risks – even if those risks mean losing the respectability of snooty colleagues but gaining an inner wealth of accomplishment.
While the first act plods along a bit, and too-obviously subscribes to the classic fish-out-of-water convention, the work progresses into an aching moral dilemma. Granted, it’s easy to sarcastically call Linda a poor little rich girl, whose rants against the upper classes ring somewhat false since she takes full advantage of her riches. Yet Linda – a tragic and triumphant figure – clearly sees the hypocritical ways of her society and consciously breaks free of her pillared prison.
Barry (not unlike the Johnny Case character in real life) also manages to celebrate the hard-working Horatio "rags-to-riches" Alger myth at the same time he makes us aware of its potentially spirit-shattering apotheosis. These contradictory people fear being called idlers, while they pursue a life of leisure at all costs.
Remy Bumppo’s stylish staging, directed with depth and Jazz Age panache by James Bohnen, features some of Chicago’s strongest actors. Despite a slightly creaky first act, filled with a few mannered performances and the later awkward handling of the overly plucky Nick and Susan Potter characters, this "Holiday" glows with inspiring eternal truths.
Linda Gillum who, early on, comes close to favoring a spunky and radical superficiality as the unwavering Linda Seton, later settles into a more gently electrifying and genuine characterization. When she waits in her joyous memory-laden playroom for the New Year’s announcement of Johnny’s and Julia’s engagement, her anguish is painfully unnerving. Also delivering a generous and ultra-real portrayal is Shawn Douglass as the ambivalent but stringently non-conformist Johnny. Aaron Christensen holds down the subtle tragic-comedic fort as the wise drunk Ned.
Joe Van Slyke adopts an effectively sleepy air of authority as patriarch Edward Seton – his soft manipulations more deadly than bombastic threats. Anne Fogarty’s Julia moves plausibly from lovestruck young girl to embittered society doyenne-in-the-making. Tasha Anne James ably handles the down-to-earth role of Susan Potter, but Joe Dempsey – a fine comic actor – hams it up with awkward aplomb as her husband, Nick.
Set designer Tim Morrison has created an ornate sitting room and warmly embracing playroom set, both crisply lit by Gregg R. Essex and accompanied by the scratchy vintage 1920s sound designs of Chris Fuller. Carolyn Cristofani’s sleek after-five tails and beaded and satin-embossed Flapper Era costumes express the exotic glamour and a certain constricted elegance of that time and social echelon.
This is a lovely show – one that gracefully and brutally highlights the insidious restrictive tactics of convincing others to "come around" to a collective sort of hide-protecting, yet heart-erasing, existence. •
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company’s production of "Holiday" runs through January 5 at Victory Gardens Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln. Tickets: $22-$30. Call 773-871-3000. The company also presents Saturday family-matinee readings of Dylan Thomas’ "A Child’s Christmas in Wales," December 7, 14 and 21 at 4 p.m. at Victory Gardens. The event is free, with a suggested donation of $10.
