THE FANCY MAN
A lurid enough story–but Stott wasn’t content to leave it at that. In his account Amy is a discontented bride, frustrated at what she perceives as her husband’s posthoneymoon indifference. Waxing rebellious, she leads her husband to think that she has nightly trysts with a “fancy man,” which she describes in detail–titillating her spouse, and causing him anguish. After he declares that he can take no more, she placates him by claiming to have ceased her adventures for his sake. The imaginary inamorato is not to be dismissed so easily, however.
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The actors in the production have obviously been carefully instructed to behave as they do, making evaluation of their artistic skills difficult. Pamela Gay (Amy) and Patrick Walker (Arthur) maintain their serious demeanor heroically in roles that require them to utter such drivel as, “I’ve felt that. Ecstasy. Right through all my body. Ecstasy. Have you ever felt such a thing?” Their roles also include more incidental nudity than would be found in three seasons at Steppenwolf. Guy Barile plays the chief voice of reason, Dr. Peach, with a warmth and humor as entertaining as it is subversive in such a humorless play; the scene between him and Miss Mellodew (Maripat Donovan) is a study in subtle comic timing, however misplaced as a whole. Donna Freeburn plays the apron-clad Edith with her usual irritating vulgarity. Joel Pownall as Amy’s father and Simon Perry as Arthur’s sidekick steal every scene in which they appear–not a difficult thing to do when occupying a stage so small that the cast of seven couldn’t fit on it at the same time.
