Review: The Vinegar Tree at People’s Light

Review:  THE VINEGAR TREE at People’s Light.

By Neal Newman

July 3, 2022

If you crave a truly extraordinary theatrical experience, stop reading this and run to the phone and call 610-644-3500 to order tickets for THE VINEGAR TREE.  It is one of the most perfect productions I have ever seen in Philadelphia.

Paul Osborn’s play is a deliciously written combination of high comedy mixed with a comedy of manners, which is extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Such a play requires complex droll interactions, brittle, witty dialogue, with great ideas attached.  It requires actors who can drift through an artificial world with sumptuous upper-class settings in stunningly elegant costumes with ease.  It requires designers who can supply the above and a director who can bring all of this together.  If any aspect of the production fails, the entire affair will collapse like a house of cards.  Most of the time that’s what happens.  Elegance is almost impossible to achieve in today’s world.

Let’s begin with Paul Osborn.  He is acclaimed for the writing of THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG and MORNINGS AT SEVEN, which is a modern classic, though indifferently received in its own time.  He is not remembered well in our era, but THE VINEGAR TREE, a rarely produced play, suddenly has the feel of a classic. 

A group of archetypal characters gathers in an upper-class country house with the purpose of abetting Laura, the wife of the cantankerous older man host, with a visit from a long-lost love of years before. Fifteen years before. When he arrives, she is smitten with him. But is it her memory of this perfect love or just a romantic dream?  The author’s theme becomes apparent:  We all have dreams of what might have been had not circumstance altered our lives.  Could we or should we mourn the past we should have had?  Osborn suggests that we examine our own present and perhaps realize how excellent our imperfect future has become.  Quite a theme.  This high comedy reaches its summit in a scene where the frustrated wife meets her “old lover” only to discover that he is infatuated with her 18-year-old daughter.  The brilliance of the writing is that the scene plays on for many minutes with each character not understanding what the other wants.  Then it finally dawns on the supposed “lover.”  He is astounded.  Osborn also delivers a crackling ending to Act Two and keeps the climax until a few lines before the final curtain. This is magnificent high comedy.

This play was written in 1930.  The contemporary clothing of that era was not attractive to today’s eyes.  The costumes by Marla J. Jurglanis somehow manage to suggest the period and yet make everyone look splendid. The excellent settings by Daniel Zimmerman suggest an upper-class country house but are cleverly adapted to the small but pleasing Steinbright stage.  The lighting by Dennis Parichy fulfills the demands admirably.

Now to the outstanding performances. Aside from the natural elegance, the actors must have the expressive vocal ability to deliver the biting dialogue with the proper panache. They do.

The leading role is obviously Laura, who has mastered the outer regalia of upper-class society without the intelligence to match it.  She thinks Botticelli is a composer and Holbein is really Holstein.  She proudly announces “I am a Holstein” as her husband winces in agony.  This role was originally played in 1930 by Mary Boland, whom you’ll realize if you’ve seen her in her many films, most memorably THE WOMEN, is a take-no-prisoners STAR and expects everyone to follow behind.  This production is, thankfully, a true ensemble piece where everyone contributes equally.  Teri Lamm’s wonderful Laura benefits from this approach but still supplies the central, daffy, comedy of manners characterization.  It is also a credit to People’s Light to supply an experienced acting troupe to create this.

David Ingram as the older husband mostly sits on the side and delivers epigrams designed to show that he is the smartest fellow in the room.  Both performers are given a MARRIAGE OF FIGARO final act which allows their full acting prowess to flower.   

The young lovers played by Claire Inie-Richards and Aubie Merrylees are as consumed by youth and self-centeredness as the kids of THE FANTASTICKS.  Their self-consumed madness is especially amusing when the young man rejects his love because she is a virgin.  When the girl, as a result, throws herself at the older man, he responds that virginity is “an unintelligent stage to be in.”

Julianna Zinkel plays the younger sister, a much married and pragmatic character who reasons with the others.  Though she can be as giddy a lover as the others, she holds the play together with her charm and dry wit.

Christopher Kelly has the most difficult characterization of the long-lost lover who has no idea what anyone is so excited about. This is a pivotal role in high comedy and Kelly manages to be both charming and innocently oblivious at the same time.

People’s Light stalwart Stephen Novelli plays the small role of the butler.  There are no small parts only great actors.

Abigail Adams directs this play skillfully creating a number of memorable stage pictures as well as some superbly inventive comical moments of stage movement.  How else could all of this be pulled together as one totally coherent work of art?

This combination of writing, acting, design, and directing will stay in the memory forever. Bravo.

Running Time: 2 hours with an intermission.

Masks are required in the theater.

 THE VINEGAR TREE plays through Sunday, July 24, 2022, at People’s Light – 39 Conestoga Road in Malvern, PA. For tickets call the box office at (610) 644-3500 or purchase them online.