Not Classy, but Still Stoppard, And Still Shakespeare & Co.

Tom Stoppard has been entertaining and challenging audiences for decades with plays like “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,†“Arcadia,†“The Coast of Utopia†and many, many more. “Rough Crossing,†currently at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, MA, is a less significant play, but it contains a lot of Stoppard tricks and fun.

   He seems to have taken the day off to write this one, though there are his usual delicious puns, hysterically funny bad jokes and perceptive comments.

  Lively performances and some sharp staging help to infuse this satirical farce with more than is actually there.  

   Set in the 1930s, a playwriting team, Turai and Gal, and their composer, Adam Adam, are on the New York-bound SS Italian Castle to work on their next Broadway extravaganza.

  Adam is engaged to actress Natasha Navratalova who, though on the ship, is not aware that Adam and the writers have boarded a day earlier as a surprise for her.  A former lover and current co-star, Ivor Fish, is also present.  In true farce form, complications arise every other moment, in this case abetted by an amiable ship’s steward.   

   As in most farces, the plot is both convoluted and simplistic, but Stoppard equips this one with his signature glibness and flair.  Using Ferenc Molnar’s “The Play’s the Thing†as a starting point, he satirizes playwrights and playwriting, actors, directors, the “well-made†plays of the late 19th century, and ocean travel.  Though some of the humor is scattershot, much of it works, often producing uproarious laughter.

   Director Kevin G. Coleman’s work is strong and well-controlled, not letting the farcical situations become overly exaggerated, but there are moments when the production lags.  This may be more of a problem with the script’s expository needs than the performance. In addition to the verbal repartee, Coleman’s physical humor, including pratfalls, running jokes, handling and mishandling of props, add energy to the proceedings.

   Jonathan Croy’s Sandor Turai, a wonderful caricature of a pompous, manipulative Broadway playwright who adores his own work, attempts to solve all the problems that are undermining his show.  Jason Asprey, as his partner Alex Gal, delivers a very funny and subtly-timed performance, mining the writer’s obsession with food for every laugh he can find.

   Adam Adam is in the capable hands of Bill Barclay, who participates in much of the physical humor; Barclay also serves as music director.  The steward, Dvornicheck, a name which produces a number of laughs, is nicely played by Leroy McClain as a charming rascal.

  And Elizabeth Aspenlieder, a fine comedian, tears into the fading actress, Navratalova, with a mock Russian accent, rubber face and flashing eyes. Her delivery gathers many of the biggest laughs as does Malcolm Ingram’s dense, aging leading man, Ivor Fish.

   With music by André Previn, there are songs and some clever choreography that add pleasant and upbeat interludes to the show. Govane Lohbauer’s costumes capture the ’30s as do Carl Sprague’s various shipboard sets.

   Though this is not Stoppard at his theatrical best, it is a play with its tongue deeply in its cheek and a major wink of the eye.

    Enjoy it.

   “Rough Crossing†runs through Sept. 2.  For reservations call 413-637-3353; or go to www.shakespeare.org or e-mail boxoffice@shakespeare.org.