‘Seven Keys to Slaughter Peak’ is a crowd-pleasing farce
Thursday, 08 April 2010 12:51
The scene: winter in a rustic summer lodge in the Wisconsin North Woods.
The characters: a pulp fiction writer seeking the solitude necessary to write his next bestseller, gangsters, a gun moll, corrupt politicians, a crooked railroad magnet, an intrepid “girl reporter,” her lovesick mother and a misogynistic hermit.
“Seven Keys to Slaughter Peak” is Rep artistic director Joseph Hanreddy’s farewell production before leaving to join the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts.
Hanreddy also wrote the script, based on the wildly popular 1913 play “Mysterious Farcical Melodrama,” by George M. Cohan. The scene has been “updated,” however, from 1913 to the Prohibition Era 1930s. It’s also been relocated from a New York mountain lodge to the North Woods of Wisconsin – an area that’s no stranger to Chicago gangsters. The masterful set by Michael Ganio is the perfect setting for a farce – complete with stairways, multiple doors and windows, and secret passages.
The semi-modernization of the action provides a curious escape from political correctness. Peters (the hermit) asserts, “I don’t like women. All the trouble since the beginning of time has been caused by women.” Magee, the writer, is referred to as a “Pansy writer come up from Chicago to write a book.”
The play, however, is a farce – not a satire – and the 1930s characters are, in fact, in character – hence, the political incorrectness of an age gone by. LGBT audience members can laugh along with the rest of the audience.
Hanreddy’s adaptation updates the dialogue while retaining much of the original. The cast is comprised principally of members of the Rep’s resident acting company, and it’s simply fun to see them all together: Brian Vaughn plays the hapless writer with his signature affable charm. Lee Ernst is hysterical as the lodge’s irascible North Woods caretaker. Steve Pickering is a perfectly corrupt mayor, Deborah Staples is a scheming blackmailer, Laura Gordon is a confused mother, Lee Stark is the intrepid ingénue, Tory Hanson is a bumbling thug, James Pickering is the sour hermit, and a very funny Gerard Neugent is a dumb muscle head.
Hanreddy directs with masterful timing. The “update” doesn’t always hit the mark, with occasional dialogue and plot turns that don’t fit the ’30s hard-boiled genre. But while some of the updates might have been odd, they were definitely fun. This is a crowd-pleaser that received a hearty standing ovation the night I attended.
Stay Connected