Published in the City Pulse, May 15th, 2013
Golf farce crushes the comedy with solid writing, acting
Playwright Ken Ludwig's Review comedy "The Fox on the Fairway" ends Starlight Dinner Theatre’s season on a hilarious note.
Directed by Linda Granger, the show takes place over a weekend at the Quail golf tournament as the home team goes up against the Crouching Squirrel Golf Club. Club presidents Henry Bingham (Chris Klaver) and Dickie Bell (Ron McNeill) make a wager before the tournament, and then the real fun begins.
What follows is the pressure of winning for the recently hired Justin Hicks (Jeff Kennedy, who has an easy charm and a warm smile) and lovers' quarrels between both the newly engaged Hicks and Louise Heindbedder (Rachel Mender) and the long-married Bingham and his wife, Muriel (Diana Lett).
The duo of Henry Bingham and Pamela Peabody (Charlotte Ruppert) is the one to watch for. As individuals, Klaver and Ruppert bring their A-games, but as a couple they only heighten each other’s comedic skill set. Each also plays well to the script’s more extravagant moments, such as when they both get drunk and then, later, when another character experiences "hysterical blindness." Shining moments, both.
Ludwig's script obviously has moments created for large physical comedy and huge exaggeration, but this production doesn't play it as loudly, or boldly, as it could have been.
Paul Sisson's fantastic set takes viewers inside the country club. The show calls for a lot of entrances and dramatic leavings, so having four ways for the actors to leave quickly was a smart choice.