SF Bay Guardian, April 14, 2004

Zippy Miser

-- Robert Avila

Shotgun Players open their new season – boldly designed this year to offer free admission to the public – with a zippy, hyperstylized staging of Molière's lambasting farce about the poisonous intermingling of love and money. Clive Worsley revels with mischievous exuberance in the title role of the tyrannical, penny-pinching patriarch whose attempt to marry off his daughter (Emily Jordan) to a rich older man (Phil Sheridan) instead of her lover (Joe Wyka), while meanwhile snatching young Marianne (Meghan Doyle) from the charms of his son (Andy Alabran), turns his own children in conspiracy against him.

The agile cast and Patrick Dooley's inspired direction strike a remarkable balance between elaborate rococo flourishes and anarchic energy. Characters bound across the stage, running or tumbling in and out of doors and windows in Lisa Clark's exquisite set design, wrapped up in costume designer Valera Coble's wonderful explosions of 17-century garments (very Rolling Stones circa Beggars Banquet), without missing a beat or loosening their comically outrageous personae. The effect, while impressive, doesn't necessarily sustain the entire play, but in general the theme is the only thing in the least miserly about this production.