Don’t be surprised if you find yourself checking your calendar at Flying Anvil Theatre’s delicious production of Boeing Boeing. Yes, in the real world, the year is 2020 where words like “sexism” and “consensual” fly through the air like daggers to battle it out with “political correctness” for debate and headlines. However, in FAT’s current production of this comic farce, it is still the Sixties—or perhaps, the Sex-ties—when flight attendants were stewardesses and the sexual revolution met “prim and proper” head on.
With a title that conjures up the speed, metallic efficiency, and the modern convenience of the recently-arrived jet-age, Boeing Boeing sprang from the pen of French playwright Marc Camoletti. Falling into the genre of comic farce, the play was translated into English in 1962, with an immensely popular London production running for seven years. Its 1965 Broadway production didn’t fare as well, closing after 32 performances. However, a re-imagining of the work by Matthew Warchus gave Boeing Boeing a 2008 Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Play”.
The setting is the Paris apartment of American architect Bernard (Andrew Shipman), a young bachelor who has created an arrangement in which he carefully juggles “engagements” with three different airline stewardesses who call the apartment their home—except not at the same time. There’s the Texan Gloria (Helena Jordan) from TWA, the Italian Gabriella (Gray Casterline) from Alitalia, and the German Gretchen (Raine Palmer) from Lufthansa. Bernard keeps meticulous track of the women’s flight schedules insuring that the three never meet, assisted in the ruse by his snarky, but efficient Parisian housekeeper Berthe (JoAnn Damiani). However, one doesn’t need aircraft radar to see the inevitable complication coming when Bernard’s old school friend, Robert (Justin Von Stein), arrives for a visit at the same time bad weather alters the women’s flight schedules unexpectedly.
Of course, the plot isn’t really the point of Boeing Boeing, nor is it a social satire, a parody, or character study. Boeing Boeing is a theatrical farce—pure and simple—and the joy of it comes from watching the intricately timed connections of entrances and exits, hits and near-misses, all made delightfully silly by the combinations and permutations of color-coded uniforms and flight bags, the frenetic pacing of multiple bedroom doors flying open and slamming shut, and an earthy housekeeper staggering through the comings and goings. Should anyone wish to comment on the play’s apparent amorality, I point them to the history of Restoration comedies.
Without any real character depth to deal with, director Jayne Morgan has obviously relished her role as a farce choreographer and has created a marvelous sense of rhythm and pacing that carries the plot, speeding with dispatch from incident to incident, from comic tension to relaxation. Similarly, the actors are called upon to define their roles in broad, but admittedly shallow, expressionistic strokes. And, in the case of the three airline hostesses, the blatant stereotypes may cause some to wince, even in the total absence of seriousness. Nevertheless, there are comic opportunities aplenty. Palmer’s delightfully physical Gretchen puts up the front of a German dominatrix, albeit a vulnerable one whose romantic preferences are easily rattled. Casterline’s Gabriella is the romantically fiery and deliciously moody Italian, while Jordan’s Gloria is the Texan confident that she is always in charge.
Shipman’s Bernard believes he is in control of the ménage à quatre he has created, but sinks under the pressure of it falling apart. As Bernard sinks, his friend Robert becomes a pivot point for the action, allowing Von Stein to actually develop a comically impossible character arc, moving him from that “nice guy from Wisconsin” who has never had a girlfriend, to one able to hold his own in international romance. Despite the fact that he seems to buy into Bernard’s inarguably questionable romantic arrangement and is a willing participant in assisting his friend, the vehicle of farce does allow him to re-think his decisions in the finale.
Having had a go at Americans, Germans, and Italians, Boeing Boeing also takes a whack at the French, although Damiani’s sensational Berthe is anything but a stereotype of French maids. She is devastatingly contrary, continually wallowing in snarky complaints about her treatment and situation, yet she somehow manages to keep everything straight. Equally fun is Damiani’s made-up French accent, gloriously stereotypical in itself.
Yes, it is 2020—but Flying Anvil’s Boeing Boeing is not pretending to be something it isn’t. It is a deliciously directed and acted farce that seeks to charm with its energy and defies anyone to take its innocent naughtiness too seriously. Laughter is great medicine for our serious times—Boeing Boeing offers up plenty.
Boeing Boeing runs Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 PM; Sundays at 2:00 PM; through Feb. 16.
Flying Anvil Theatre, 1300 Rocky Hill Road
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