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The original title of Feydeau’s play is Chemin de Fer, for a French version of baccarat, a game in which the banker holds the cards (so to speak) until another player takes over his position. Theater Wit’s cheeky but clunky new name evokes the spirit of Feydeau’s intent with the square-dance allusion to changing partners; women are passed ’round and ’round in the course of the farce by a number of discontented male suitors.
Though we don’t want to reveal too many of the particulars—the reveal of the who, what and with whom is what makes French farce worth watching—we can say this: The swinging partners in Feydeau-Si-Deau seem almost to advocate for open relationships. Working with a dream cast of comic actors, many of whom are afforded only a scene or two, Wechsler makes a decent case for Feydeau’s brand of sex comedy with a lesser-known work (this adaptation, which premiered on Broadway in 1973, makes a belated Chicago debut).
Maggie Graham, an actor who seems genetically engineered for screwball, is a standout in the lead female role, while Matt Engle channels his intensity into painstakingly choreographed physical comedy (and Jennifer Grace makes something out of nearly nothing in a delightfully quirky, tiny role). Our only quibbles are the excruciatingly long scene changes and the quality of construction on Courtney O’Neill and Hang Le’s set design—farce is tough on slamming doors, and on opening night, it showed.
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