Theater review

There’s an interesting correlation between girls and flies in Terence Frisby’s play “There’s a Girl in My Soup” being performed at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 16, by the Cornville Players at the Lakewood Theater in Madison. Basically the message is that girls, like flies, interrupt an otherwise delicious bite of life. It’s a `60s message, full of psychedelic Freudianism and uncertainty about women libbers.

It is fruitful, on occasion, to look back on that freedom-seeking, self-expressing era, as long as one doesn’t lapse into an obsessive nostalgia. Unfortunately, the Lakewood production doesn’t bring anything fresh to Frisby’s play. It’s even worth complicating the metaphor and saying that the girl and the fly should have been thrown out with the soup water.

The play is about the life of graying gourmet star Robert Danvers and his escapades with a variety of feminine “dishes.” At a party, he meets Marion, 19, who challenges his stale approach to womanizing and makes a point of further destroying the “mystery that should surround sexual intimacy.” She’s honest, fresh and perky, and sees Robert as an “avuncular old fuddy-duddy.”

Robert eventually admits his intrigue with the vivacious teen-ager and asks her to marry him, but Marion must choose between Robert and her drum-playing, girl-swapping, adolescent lover Jimmy. Somehow the decision is a tough one.

Though completely dated, the script does have humorous moments. Much of the humor is lost, however, because the cast isn’t sensitive to the differences between British and American idioms. In fact, without British accents, the show is flat and, at times, incongruous.

The play unquestionably relies upon the acting abilities and energetic interaction of Robert and Marion. Cornville Players Bruce McDougal and Debby Moore fall short of the mark. McDougal lacks the finesse of a sexy gourmet, and Moore is rambunctious and endearing, but too methodical in her spontaneity.

But it’s not just these two who limit the production. All of the seduction scenes are inhibited and uninteresting. In addition, the stage cues are poorly executed, and the set and props work against rather than for the cast. Lighting changes occur without any apparent reason and entirely too much extraneous business occurs on stage.

As a lusty Italian maid, Gina D. Krummel adopts a Spanish accent. Robert’s pants fall down and we are supposed to believe that he wouldn’t notice such an insignificant detail.