‘The Cottage’ @ Stage West
Photos by Evan Michael Woods; graphic by Jen Schultes
—Martha Heimberg
Flaunting a beautifully bobbed haircut and a clingy pink negligee, Sylvia (Natalie Young in high vamp mode) arranges her slender limbs in various sexy poses on a handsome Art Deco chaise lounge, and everybody laughs before a word is spoken. What farce is afoot?
Stage West closes their 47th season with the regional premiere of Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage, a delightfully silly and wonderfully acted spoof of Noel Coward-style farce about adulterous affairs — and the comic consequences of such foolishly romantic trysts. It’s 1923, and almost anything goes.
A spoof of a British farce is necessarily wildly exaggerated when it comes to sight gags, posh accents and plenty of doors. Director Emily Scott Banks runs with the over-the-top style of the play, and keeps the tea and gin flowing while the the sharp six-member cast pops in and out of windows, doors, and window seats as they burble their merry way through two acts of haughty understatement and feigned adoration. Quite a feat!
Turns out, pretty Sylvia is primping to say farewell to her lover Beau (perfectly snotty and always hilarious Parker Davis Gray). who’s upstairs washing up and getting into his fancy oriental robe — with socks and garters, no less. Turns out, the two have just had their seventh annual wild night of adulterous and passionate sex. Now it’s farewell time and Sylvia begs Beau not to rush off.
“Oh, I wish you were my husband,” she tells him. He replies that were that the case, she’d despise him just as much she does as her own husband, who happens to be Beau’s brother, Clarke. Then Sylvia reveals she’s sent a telegram telling Clarke and Beau’s wife Marjorie about their affair... and that she wants a divorce.
The twisty plot get twistier — if not actually incestuous — right away, when Clarke (effusively patronizing Lee George) and proudly pregnant Marjorie (properly snippy Nicole Renee Johnson) show up at the door announcing their own relationship — a rambunctious nightly affair. After all, both brothers do have access to their rich Mum’s Cotswold cottage.
But then, Natalie has to wonder what Beau’s been up to all those nights while his brother is bedding his wife. Enter Dierdre, a party-girl/pro played by Kristen Lazarchick with great comic energy and a marvelously mobile smile. Diedre’s curse is a husband she claims is murderously jealous, despite the obvious requirements of her profession. Richard (charming Philip Matthew Maxwell), a man of many parts, shows up late in the longish first act, and is part of the triumphant surprise that brings Sylvia full circle — and fulfills the promise of the cottage as a place where a woman’s dreams really can come true.
Murell Horton designed the fabulously detailed costumes and wigs to reflect the era. Travel costumes and formal wear for the men are beautifully textured and well-fitted. Women’s costumes, whether a filmy robe or a flirty day dress, tell us much about what was jazzy about the Jazz Age.
Leann Burns designed the lighting, and Leah Mazur designed the scrumptious set on the ample proscenium stage, with a curved staircase suitable for all kinds of naughtiness, and a flowery garden you can almost smell. The parlor is replete with chrystal chandeliers flowing with wisteria vines and bright hues of turquoise and rose on the walls. The handsome Art Deco furnishings are to languish or make love on — and this Cottage invites both. Why not?
WHEN: August 12-30, 2026
WHERE: 821 West Vickery, Fort Worth
WEB: https://stagewest.org/
