Merrily we laugh along

REMEMBER DOLLY LEVI from “Hello Dolly!”? For those who do as well as for those who’d like to make her acquaintance, she’s back on stage again next week in Bangkok Community Theatre’s (BCT) new production of Thornton Wilder’s “The Matchmaker”, the play that inspired the international hit musical.
In 1953, the American playwright adapted “Matchmakers” from his 1938 play “The Merchant of Yonkers”, which he in turn had adapted from 19th-century Viennese farce “Einen Jux will er sich machen”.
The history of “The Matchmaker” in Thailand dates back to 1965 when National Artist Sodsai Pantoomkomol staged it, in English, at Chulalongkorn University.
Director Mark Sobels says that this choice was “initially his” and then, “BCT decided this was a play we wanted to do, could do, and that Bangkok would enjoy. It appeals to everyone.
“After directing Noel Coward and George Bernard Shaw recently for BCT, I wanted to do a fine American play. ‘The Matchmaker’ is a big, happy, beautifully written play with excellent character roles for 16 actors and a balance of male and female roles.
“It felt right. It’s part of modern Americana, a story most of us know in one form or other, and about love and money that were as co-mingled then as they are today. And Wilder’s witty words on the driving power of money providing opportunity will strike chords with our audience I am sure.”
Calling the play “a wonderful, funny, warm, wise, frequently physical, sophisticated farce”, he adds that the drama as a whole is “curiously contemporary”.
“I like the four set changes and the opportunity for splendid costuming. I believe we’ve risen to the challenge in meeting these. I like productions to be a feast for the eyes as well as the ears, and the mind too if you are tuned in. The female characters in this play are stronger and more capable than the male ones and that’s how it was originally written: they are really very contemporary.”
Despite never seeing the play live, Sobels can’t remember a time when he didn’t know about it. “It’s possible I saw it on black-and-white television as a child but I really can’t remember. I read it at university 30 years ago. I remember Thornton Wilder died whilst I was at university and he seemed to be kind of hip then. Funny how some plays and some things stay in your mind.”
The director sets the play in its original year of 1884.
“I’ve never known it to be updated. The essence of the story – country bumpkins travelling to the city and finding love – could easily be transferred to today’s Bangkok. But then that would be a different play.”
“The miserly Merchant of Yonkers character, ably played by American film actor and respected Bangkok-based acting coach John Marengo, is somewhat disrespectful to women early on in the play. I’ve made sure he’s very plainly seen to get his comeuppance at the hands of strong female characters, along with his redemption.
“I really like that in this play as with Charles Dickens’ Scrooge character in ‘A Christmas Carol’. Redemption and a kind of rebirth are possible: even for the worst of us, love is the great saving grace – along with money.”
BCT’s “The Matchmaker” is being staged at the new Alliance Francaise de Bangkok auditorium next weekend.
“It’s the only place in Bangkok that’s just the right size with all the facilities needed to mount this play properly. It’s a play that needs a production of a certain size and weight to work. I hope we’ve got it right. I believe we have,” he grins.
 LOVE AND LAUGHS
- “The Matchmaker” will be staged at 8pm on April 25 and 26 and May 2 and 3 at the Alliance Francaise de Bangkok. The venue is on Wireless Road, a 10-minute walk from MRT Lumphini, exit 3 on April 25 and 26 as well as May 2 and 3 at 8pm.
- Tickets are Bt850. For bookings, e-mail [email protected] or call (087) 517 2666 (8am to 2pm only).
- For more details, check www.BCT-Th.org.