Winterset Finding Neverland And Three More Alternatives To Holiday Fare

Credit: Joe Mazza

Jeeves Intervenes ShawChicago, which generally specializes in concert readings of George Bernard Shaw’s dialectical social satires, eschews intellectual comedy for pure farcical fun in this rendition of Margaret Raether’s adaptation of stories by British humorist P.G. Wodehouse. Set in 1928 London, the nonsensical plot concerns dimwitted, idly rich aristocrat Bertie Wooster’s efforts to evade marriage to the young lady his overbearing Aunt Agatha intends him to wed. The situation is complicated by the arrival of Bertie’s old school chum, feckless Eustace Bassington-Bassington, who needs to “borrow” Bertie’s fashionable flat to pose as a successful businessman so he can avoid his uncle’s intentions to send him off to India to learn the jute trade. To the rescue comes Jeeves, Bertie’s pluperfect valet, who cannily manipulates the situation to suit Bertie’s—and Jeeves’s own—interests. Director Robert Scogin’s minimalist production conveys both the verbal wit and fast-paced physical humor of the story, thanks to selectively staged movement and, especially, the superb cast’s deft delivery of Wodehouse’s whimsically eccentric dialogue. —Albert Williams