American Players Theatre Presents ROUGH CROSSING Review — A Comedic Romp on the Seas

American Players Theatre Presents a Stoppard Classic

It’s just the beginning for Tom Stoppard’s classic chock-full-of-repartee romp aboard the SS Italian Castle. As our two playwrights, Turai and Alex Gal (played by Jamal James), struggle to finish their play, it only gets worse when the ship departs for New York. As this comedy of misunderstandings unfolds, our seasoned cast has us laughing out loud at every turn.

This production masterfully delivers the full gamut of comedic styles that Stoppard’s pen imagines, in this writer’s view. Ridge/Turai is a constant of rapid-fire, desert-dry, and sharp comebacks.  He’s also not one to shy away from a running gag each time he’s denied a cognac by scene-stealer David Daniel as Dvornichek — the clueless butler with a penchant to hear requests for cognac as offers of cognac. James/Gal is the quintessential drama queen, exaggerating calamities with flair as he dashes off to the lifeboats, tea cakes, and sandwiches in hand.  Though he stumbles for his words, Josh Krause as Adam, keeps us giggling with his perpetually late lines — even when he has no words to speak.

Meanwhile, the quintessential repartee that is a Stoppard trademark truly comes to life when Kelsey Brennan as Natasha and Marcus Truschinski as Ivor quip and quibble after their affair has ended.  Even the sound designers show their comic chops by carefully cutting in and out of the music as Natasha sings and frustrated Ivor stands forlornly behind her.  With precision timing, the music cuts in and out at the exact moments when she snaps a retort Ivor’s way.

And, even the transitions between scenes become comedic as Daniel/The Butler dances around set crew members to create a magnificent sitting room.

All The 30s Glamor

Every detail of stagecraft transports us to the glitzy time a few years after the roaring 20s and to a carefully imagined cruiseship. We hear ship horns as we set sail, and jazzy instrumentals bringing us back to the flapper-era during the intermission.