A Wilder Ride

Through Oct. 7 People's Light & Theatre Co.,39 Conestoga Road, Malvern.

by Mark Cofta

Thornton Wilder never got around to adapting his last novel, Theophilus North (1973), for the stage, but it could've fooled me watching Matthew Burnett's affectionate adaptation. Wilder's semi-autobiographical comedy (his twin brother, who died at birth, was named Theophilus) receives a gently textured production at People's Light & Theatre Co., where James F. Pyne's oval parquet platform suggests New England high society, but the actual locations (not to mention a car and a ferry boat) are represented by actors.

The title character, played with charming reserve by John Wernke, narrates his own adventure: a 1926 trip to see the world that takes him from New Jersey to Rhode Island, where his car breaks down. Piecing together a living through tutorials and private readings, he becomes an agent for change for Newport's privileged eccentrics (Alda Cortese, Lenny Haas, Ahren Potratz, Mary Beth Scallen, Tom Teti and Julianna Zinkel in dozens of roles) — and gradually discovers that even a catalyst can grow.

North's gently humorous story might strike some as tedious. Much joy awaits those patient enough to listen for Wilder's neat turns of phrase (a gigolo is "a dancing partner with ambitions"), North's pithy observations (a precocious teenager is like "one of Shakespeare's heroines at the age of 14"), and the delicious scandals obscured by high society's rigid politeness (a lost art in a culture where the vice president can tell colleagues to fuck themselves, and a mope like me can repeat it verbatim).

I loved it: the lively discussions about Shakespeare, James Joyce, philosophers and French lessons as well as stargazing meditations about "the mystery of who we may become" that echo similar musings in Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and other Wilder plays. Pyne and lighting designer Dennis Parichy hang big, primitive stars that seem fashioned by kindergartners (and that's a compliment — they're lovely). Director Abigail Adams' production also features Marla J. Jurglanis' beautifully flowing period costumes.

All Wilder's plays need — as he claimed, paraphrasing Molière — is "a platform and a passion or two." Theophilus North wisely employs only three chairs, a stool and a bicycle, as well as a colorful town's many submerged passions and quirky characters, for a delightful evening of theater.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Theophilus North | Through Oct. 7 People's Light & Theatre Co.,39 Conestoga Road, Malvern,610-644-3500, www.peopleslight.org