An idealistic heiress, a dashing captain who must pose as a pauper to win her love, a blundering aunt with romantic deceptions of her own to handle, subplots featuring a devoted cousin and her compulsively doubting lover, a bumbling competing suitor for the heiress, a lusty Irishman who has mistakenly fallen in love with the heiress during a correspondence courtship with her aunt, and a rash of mistaken identities, deceptions, comic coincidences and duels comprises one of the most thoroughly enjoyed satires ever written. One of the country’s most widely acclaimed theater ensembles, The Acting Company will perform its fast-paced, lavish production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18th century English comedy The Rivals on Sunday, April 9 at 8 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall.

In addition to brisk direction by Nicholas Martin, fabulous sets designed by Alexander Dodge, luscious period costuming by Michael Krass, evocative lighting by Dennis Parichy and a musical score from Handel’s Love in Bath, this production also boasts a script based on Sheridan’s risque original version, which had been cut dramatically over the last two centuries to suit more prim tastes than those that predominated the theater when the play premiered in 1775.

The Acting Company

The Acting Company, America’s only nationally-touring classical repertory theater, was founded in 1972 by current producing director Margot Harley and the late John Houseman with members of the first graduating class of the Juilliard School’s Drama Division. Since then it has traveled to 48 states and nine other countries, performing a repertoire of 77 plays for more than 2 million people.

Every year, The Acting Company engages an ensemble of the best trained, most talented young actors available to perform classic plays and contemporary works in repertory, enabling the actors to gain invaluable experience and develop their craft. A roster of the Company’s 263 alumni actors reads like a "Who’s Who" of American theater, boasting talents like Lisa Banes, Frances Conroy, Keith David, Gerald Gutierrez, Harriet Harris, James Houghton, Kevin Kline, Patti LuPone, Mary Lou Rosato, Derek Smith, David Ogden Stiers and Jeffrey Wright who stand among the United States’ leading actors and directors.

The Company has built an impressive repertoire of classic works and modern standards by the premier authors of the European and American stages, from Gorky, Ibsen and Moliere to Brecht, Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams. In addition, the Company commissions and produces original works and adaptations by first-rate contemporary playwrights. This tradition of incubating important new work for the American theater spawned Alfred Uhry’s highly-acclaimed The Robber Bridegroom; Orchards, an evening of one-act plays based on Chekhov with contributions by Maria Irene Fornes, John Guare, David Mamet, Wendy Wasserstein and others; and Mud, River, Stone by African American playwright Lynn Nottage. In 1998, Love’s Fire: Fresh Numbers by Seven American Playwrights, an evening of plays and music inspired by Shakespeare’s sonnets by Eric Bogosian, William Finn, Guare, Tony Kushner, Marsha Norman, Ntozake Shange and Wasserstein, played to critical acclaim in both the U.S. and London.

From time to time, The Acting Company mounts special productions with its alumni, who have appeared in John Houseman’s celebrated revival of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock; Ten By Tennessee; the New York premiere of Eric Overmyer’s On the Verge; and the 1995 Broadway revival of Sheridan’s School for Scandal.

In recognition of its consistent level of excellence, the Company has won several OBIE Awards, Audelco Awards, the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and two Tony Award nominations.

The Acting Company has performed at UCSB on seven previous occasions, most recently in 1988 when it presented Kabuki MacBeth and Five by Tenn, five one-act plays by Tennessee Williams. More information about the Company may be found at www.theactingcompany.org.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan was born in Dublin in 1751 and sent to the English public school Harrow. Having felt deeply rejected by his family, he set out hide his feelings from the public. He joined his father in Bath at age 16. In a scandalous move in 1772, Sheridan ran off to France to marry Bath’s most charming singer of the day. On their return, he fought two duels on her behalf and earned the status of gentleman for his valor and skill as a duelist.

He moved to London in 1774 and began, with great ambition and facility, to write plays. His success in theater was immediate and profound. His first play, The Rivals (first produced when he was only 23) was a novel achievement for its matchmaking complexity, clever ribaldry and humorously convoluted plot. The School for Scandal arrived two years later, scoring another triumph for Sheridan, who generated continuous laughter with a story laced skewering the malice and hypocrisy of his social milieu where sibling rivalry, familial shame, debt and embarrassment were the order of the day. The Critic, which premiered in 1779, was Sheridan’s immensely popular satire of his own profession, depicting the rehearsal of a lamentably bad play with subtle confusions of life and artifice. In 1776, Sheridan became manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, a position that brought with it considerable public and cultural power.

For Sheridan, a natural extension of his stature lay in a political career. In 1780 he was elected a Member of Parliament. He was widely applauded for his oratory skills, sending his colleagues into frenzies with his impassioned speeches. Although patriotic toward England, Sheridan was sensitive to and outspoken against abuses of power against the Irish, Americans or Indians, all fronts on which the British government was embroiled in conflict at the time.

Being of two minds politically, however, Sheridan acquired a reputation for hypocrisy; while professing loyalty to revolutionaries, worked for the Prince Regent, son of George III. He was widowed twice, drank to excess, gambled and patronized prostitutes, who then paraded on his behalf during elections. He championed political causes that failed miserably. Eventually, the Prince Regent, as he moved closer to the throne, betrayed Sheridan. In 1809, the Drury Lane Theater, which Sheridan owned by then, burned to the ground. When the theater was rebuilt, Sheridan was banished from its management. He lost his seat in Parliament. He died in poverty in 1816. Sheridan has been likened to Oscar Wilde for his ambition, genius, ability to provoke scandal and for ending life in poverty, drunkenness and apparent failure.

The Rivals

Lydia Languish, a wealthy heiress who dreams of a romantically penniless lover, falls in love with the destitute military man, Ensign Beverly. Lydia’s aunt, the verbose and blundering Mrs. Malaprop (on whom the term "malapropism" is based), objects to the ensign, but has herself fallen in love with a quixotic Irishman, Sir Lucius O’Trigger. O’Trigger and Malaprop have never met, but have exchanged love letters, with the Irishman believing the lady with whom he has been corresponding is the young Lydia.

Ensign Beverly is really Captain Jack Absolute, the dashing and aristocratic son of Sir Anthony Absolute. Having fallen for Lydia and knowing that she could only love a poor man, Jack is posing as Ensign Beverly. Unbeknownst to Jack, Sir Anthony has arranged with Mrs. Malaprop for him to marry Lydia. Jack discovers the happy truth only to realize that his deceit will be revealed when he meets his bride-to-be and that Lydia will surely reject him. At the same time, Lydia’s other suitor, the wealthy county squire Bob Acres is disheartened that Lydia loves Beverly and, at O’Trigger’s encouragement, sends his friend Jack to deliver the challenge of a duel to the ensign.

Meanwhile, Jack’s friend Faulkland and Lydia’s cousin Julia are in love. Faulkland compulsively doubts her love, and consequently takes a series of bizarre and annoying actions. In a frantic final episode that brilliantly brings together the play’s myriad loose ends, Lydia learns that Jack has put himself in harm’s way on her behalf, decides to accept his love, and heads to the dueling grounds to halt the violence. Acres, grown terrified by O’Trigger’s graphic descriptions of dueling, is relieved when his opponent turns out to be none other than his old friend Jack. Sir Lucius realizes he has been corresponding most passionately with Malaprop and not Lydia, Lydia recognizes that Beverly and Jack are the same man and Acres, thrilled not to be staring death in the face, orders music and entertainment for them all.

This performance is part of a tour that includes performances of The Rivals on Friday, April 7 and MacBeth on Saturday, April 8 at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts.

This residency is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and is supported in part with funds from the California Arts Council, a state agency.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2080.