The Dover Road is a vintage play, a comedy of manners with a twist. Ghostlight Ensemble is staging the 1921 A.A. Milne script, directed by Holly Robison, in an interesting historic venue—the coach-house of the Glessner House in the Prairie Avenue historic district. Robison directs this comic drama, set in 1930, with brisk action and smart dialogue by her cast of six.
We meet the host of this comic drama as the play opens. Mrs. Latimer owns a large home near the Dover Road, a major artery linking London to the English Channel port of Dover (it’s now the A-2). Mrs. Latimer (played by Maria Burnham) is a rich and rather eccentric woman (it was Mr. Latimer in the Milne original) who has an odd approach to philanthropy. With the help of her imperious butler Dominic (James Sparling), she waylays certain eloping couples to stay with her for a week.
Her mission is to ensure that they stay at her sort-of hotel (and are unable to leave) so they learn whether they are really compatible when together constantly. If they are, she sees them off on the Dover Road. And sometimes, as in this play, they aren’t. Dominic, who greets and serves everyone with a perfect English butlerian air, is responsible for the devious part of Mrs. Latimer’s plan.
The first arrivals are Anne and Leonard (Hannah Perez and Lukas Felix Schooler). They have been romantically involved and now he has left his wife so they can set off from Dover to Calais for a romantic tour of France. But car trouble stops them near Mrs. Latimer’s, where they are greeted as expected guests. Locked doors, lost luggage and Leonard’s severe cold the next day make it impossible for them to leave.
Meanwhile they meet another couple who has been at Mrs. Latimer’s for a week and now are about to leave. When we first meet Eustasia (Jean E. Mueller-Burr) and Nicholas (Nick Furlong), it seems that they might not leave together. Also it turns out that Eustasia is Leonard’s wife. Your first supposition might be that this will be a case of partner-swapping. But it turns out that the denouement of The Dover Road is more of a surprise.
The play is performed in a basic open setting with furniture as needed—a few chairs, a love seat, a breakfast/dinner table. Butler Dominic swans in and out, carrying in food and drinks and taking them away. We saw James Sparling play quite a different role two years ago when City Lit Theater staged T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral in a church sanctuary; Sparling played Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
Costumes are by Kasey Wolfgang. Anne Bundy is stage manager.
In addition to The Dover Road, A.A. Milne wrote many other plays and screenplays, but he is, of course, best known as author of the beloved Winnie the Pooh books. He was a poet and playwright first but the great success of the Pooh books overshadowed his literary career.
The Dover Road by Ghostlight Ensemble continues through May 3 at the Glessner House coach-house, 1800 S. Prairie Ave. (entrance on 18th Street). Running time is 90 minutes, no intermission. Your ticket includes a brief tour of the 1887 Glessner House, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in a style known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Tickets are pay-what-you-will with an average payment of $30 for performances Thursday-Sunday. More information here.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.
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