What’s in a name? Well, in the case of Fustian House, literally everything.
You see, it’s absolutely the most dull historical home in all of England (and that’s saying something). Fustian itself means pompous and bombastic, inflated language, which is exactly what poor bored tour guide Lettice Douffet is forced to employ so as to spare her numbed charges a slog through the dustier parts of history and instead, “Enlarge! Enliven! Enlighten!” their experience (tips accepted at the door, thank you very much).
So, you know, she just sort of lies, employing much bombastic and inflated language in service of the ever-growing fictitious fables she spins about Fustian House, until one day when Lotte Schoen, a peculiarly well-informed woman on the tour, reveals herself to in fact be a member of the Preservation Trust, which owns the lifeless manor — and also employs its tour guides.
Tiresome truth thus collides with invigorating fancy in Peter Shaffer’s award-winning comedy “Lettice and Lovage,” the latest production of which is being staged at Rolling Bay Hall (10598 NE Valley Road) this month by Bainbridge Island’s Lesser Known Players.
Directed by Karen Hauser, with an original score by Jon Brenner, the show proved an ideal choice for the performance group for more reasons than one.
“It’s lesser known,” laughed LKP co-founder Jennifer Hodges, who plays Lettice. “It was the perfect show for us.
“We like strong roles for women, especially women over 45 [and] this is all about that,” she said.
“These two women have their own identities and personalities completely independent of the men in their lives, and the story is about them and it’s not about somebody getting married or being a bridesmaid.”
Co-starring alongside Hodges as Lotte is Michelle Peterson, in her first role on Bainbridge. She’s most well known for her work with the Jewel Box and Port Gamble theaters.
Also in the cast is Sandi Spellman, Buddy Todd, Teresa Marchinek, Tyler Weaver, Dolly Courtway, Jim Cash and, of course, Pushkin.
“You cannot forget the cat,” Hauser said. “He is the only member of the cast to have an understudy.”
He’s also hypo-allergenic, a fact which made him purr-fect and put him over the top during LKP’s wide cat-casting call.
Hauser, who most recently directed a 10-minute play for Island Theatre, is this time out directing her first full-length live theater production, having worked as assistant director, stage manager and actor. She has also helmed radio plays and even a public access TV production. And it was actually she who brought “Lettice and Lovage” to LKP for consideration more than a year ago.
“I came across the play when I was in a scene study class and it really intrigued me,” she said. “The show itself, for me, because it really did speak to me so strongly and the characters are just so wonderfully drawn. Schaffer is a wordsmith … it just was really delightful to work with it.”
The show uses language decidedly un-fustian to discover the two seemingly opposing characters are not so different, a lesson that could not be any more timely.
“The two of them; they’re very disparate on the service,” the director said. “[Lettice] is very flamboyant and Lotte is very by the book, but they come to find out that they have a love of beauty and history and that’s what they bond over.
“I just love that it was a play about two independent women and that it is family-friendly,” she added. “They both have a love of history and the truth; it’s just that Lettice takes a bit of liberty with it when it needs it.”
The show was actually written specifically for one independent woman in particular.
“It’s set in 1987, which is when it was written, and it was written specifically for Maggie Smith; she won the Tony for it,” Hauser said. “She knew Peter Schaffer and went to him and said, ‘There are no parts for people of my age.’ She was about 50 at the time, which is about the age of our leading ladies, so it fits very nicely.”
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith is perhaps best known today for having played Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series. She also starred as Lady Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, on “Downton Abbey,” for which she won three Emmys.
Ultimately, “Lettice and Lovage” is exactly the kind of show — slightly under the radar but from a revered playwright, featuring choice roles for women — that LKP was founded to bring to Kitsap County, which they’ve been doing for several years now, to increasing acclaim. The group’s previous show, William Razavi’s “27 Short Plays About Being Murdered in a Hotel by ABBA: a Play,” actually sold out.
“We just wanted to do some shows that we would like to see, that we’d never seen before, and we’re really grateful for the response we’ve received,” Hodges said. “We felt this was true but it’s nice to see it proved out; that there is a place for something different.”
“Lettice and Lovage” will be staged at Rolling Bay Hall for two successive weekends: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 11 and Oct. 18, Saturday, Oct. 12 and Oct. 19, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13 and Oct. 20.
Tickets, on sale now via www.brownpapertickets.com (search: “Lettice & Lovage”) are $15 each for students, seniors and military members, and $20 general admission.
