Penobscot Theatre breathes new life into ‘Harvey’

Elwood P. Dowd is pleasant. He’s considerate and generous and intelligent. He’s the kind of guy you want around at a party, the kind of guy you can go to if you need to talk. So what if his best friend is a 6-foot-tall white rabbit that only he can see?

He’s quirky, that Elwood, but he’s also one of the most charming tipplers in American drama, which is why Mary Chase’s 1944 Pulitzer Prize-winning comic fantasy, “Harvey,” still works all these years later. In staging a towering production of this beloved classic, the Penobscot Theatre kicks off its new season and also amiably inaugurates its latest annex at the Opera House in Bangor, where the show opened Friday and will run through Oct. 12.

The beauty of the Opera House and the excitement over its revival is nearly enough to woo any theatergoer to this show. Set designer Jay Skriletz has filled the high spaces with absurdly tall bookcases and walls in ornate shades of pink and green, and the set spins around nattily to depict the family library and the local sanitarium. Skriletz’s choices are good-humoredly theatrical and they underscore the zaniness that director Lisa A. Tromovitch features in the show.

As sumptuous as it is to see the old Opera House up and going, the play’s the thing, and you most assuredly wouldn’t want to miss the chance to spend an evening with Elwood P. Dowd. Elwood, you may recall, is having a swell old time reserving a place for his pal Harvey at the dinner table, introducing him to people at social gatherings and buying theater tickets for him.

But his sister Veta and his niece Myrtle Mae are not so delighted with the rabbit, or with Elwood. In much distress, Veta decides to commit her brother to the nut house, where the psychiatrists promise that an injection of the wonder drug “shock formula 977” will bring him back to his senses. Indeed, the wonder drug does bring some sense to the family but in an unexpected way.

The lesson behind this congenial cautionary tale has to do with the power of human imagination and, as Tromovitch points out in program notes, that tricky line between reality and fantasy. In her production, Tromovitch cottons to the fantasy side of things and pushes the actors toward farce. To further question the assumptions of perception, she does some cross-gender casting. As a result, the focus occasionally shifts from the script to the spectacle of the performances, but it’s all in good fun and Tromovitch gets the audience laughing.

The two central roles — Elwood and Veta — are played expertly by John Sarrouf and Ann Foskett. While other cast members seem to be living in a cartoon world, these two ground the production in some much-appreciated reality.

Even when Foskett dabbles in hyperbole, she does it with such elegance that we genuinely believe her character as a person. And Sarrouf’s Elwood has an authenticity that warms the heart. It doesn’t matter if he’s delivering a small speech or carrying on some inside joke with the invisible Harvey, Sarrouf convinces us of both the perceptiveness and the dreaminess of his Elwood, and the range seems perfectly natural, if not alluring. Both Sarrouf and Foskett are endearing, and you can’t help but long for their return when they are offstage.

Elsewhere in the cast, an outlandishness takes over to greater or lesser degrees of success. Luke Hedger is hilarious as Aunt Ethel — and he, too, knows how to play the reality against the fantasy. Similarly, Audrey Swanton adds a weird originality to the role of Dr. Chumley.

Catherine LeClair, as Nurse Kelly, has some very funny moments, and so does Ron Adams as her boss — although his brand of comedy, which can be side-splitting, has more of a 1990s than a 1940s feel to it. The same might be said for the whininess of Deborah Elz Hammond, whose Myrtle Mae is annoyingly abrasive and huffy.

Gorgeous costumes by Odelle Bowman have the most appealing textures and colors and a style that truly recreates the period flavor of “Harvey.” Mark O’Maley’s lighting, which casts big shadows in the background, gives a cinematographic feel to the show.

Mary Chase’s script is loaded with lovely lines that will make you laugh and make you think about the way our views on town drunks, loonies and “wonder drugs” have changed through the years. Tromovitch is right to point out that the 1930s and ’40s brought significant changes to modern life. “Harvey” will make you wonder if some of those changes had anything to do with progress.

The Penobscot Theatre will present “Harvey,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 12 at the Opera House on Main Street. For tickets, call 942-3333.