Alan Bennett is not as celebrated or prolific a playwright as his contemporaries Tom Stoppard and Simon Gray, but he ranks right up there with them as a witty and humane observer of England in particular and of mankind in general.
His ”An Englishman Abroad,” seen last weekend on public television, stands among the finest dramas ever made for TV, and his ”Habeas Corpus,”
now at the Immediate Theatre, is one of the most robust and civilized English comedies of the last two decades.
Working within a tradition that extends at least from the Restoration and through to Oscar Wilde, Bennett in this 1973 work has written a philosophical sex farce that glitters with surface amusement and resonates with deeper meanings.
His comic theme, captured in the pink, fleshy figures of the huge nudes that decorate Eve Cauley`s setting, is the pursuit of the pleasures of the body, as practiced by the zany family of a London physician.
Arthur Wicksteed (originally portrayed in London by Alec Guinness) is a dried-up 53-year-old general practictioner saddled with a libidinous wife, a hypochondriac son and a woefully flat-chested sister, all of whom in the course of the play hop into bed with various visitors to their home.
Eventually, even Arthur, whose work has accustomed him to viewing the body as ”this sagging parcel of vanilla blancmange hoisted day after day on to the consulting room table,” is reawakened; and, in the end, after everyone has been paired off in blissful unions, he triumphantly asserts, ”He who lusts last, lasts longest.”
Bennett`s comedy tricks range from sophisticated wordplay to broad physical jokes, both of which are sharply shaped in director Tom Mula`s production.
Presented as a vaudeville show, with a pianist (Kingsley Day) providing background music and the family maid (Carole Gutierrez) acting as the jolly mistress of ceremonies, the play has the quick, door-slamming pace and the big, broad jokes that mark the farcical tradition. At the same time, however, it offers a wise, wry view of man`s progress from birth to death in life`s passing parade.
Mula`s staging keeps the language clear and the action precise. The actors, under his direction, run through their poetry and slapstick with practiced ease.
William J. Norris, as a titled pipsqueak of medicine, leads the charge with a performance of furious comic energy; and the entire cast takes part in the proceedings with well disciplined gusto.
Bruce Jordan, in an antic yet thoughtful portrayal, is Arthur Wicksteed;
Judy O`Malley is his ever-eager-to-mate wife; Tom Kelly is his nerd of a son
(whose name he can never recall), and Lynda Foxman, delightfully drab, is the sister whose mail-order false breasts cause much of the pandemonium.
Praise, too, for Mark Milliken as a hapless salesman, Elizabeth Hanley as the sexpot who brings Arthur to a boil, Richard Wharton as a lecherous cleric and Ann Whitney as a very old, very English battleax.
`HABEAS CORPUS`
A comedy by Alan Bennett, directed by Tom Mula, with a setting by Eve Cauley, lighting by Wally Reinhardt and costumes by Carol Miller. Opened Feb. 13 at the Immediate Theatre, 1146 W. Pratt Ave., and plays at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 6 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, through March 23. Length of performance, 2:05. General admissin tickets are $10 and $12, with discounts available for students and senior citizens. Phone 465-3107.
