University of Delaware REP presents Peter Shaffer's 'Lettice and Lovage'

Shaffer’s play is set in a historic nonentity: Fustian House in Wiltshire, the Tudor mansion of a “dull and turgid yeoman” with little distinction and even less public interest. To brighten her day and that of any visitors, tour guide Lettice Duffet (Kathleen Pirkl Tague) devises a unique way to pique interest.

Her increasingly dramatic and fanciful tours soon come under the gimlet eye of Lotte Schoen (Elizabeth Heflin), personnel officer of the Preservation Trust (Architrave Place, London), which owns and manages the property. At the opening, groups of visitors come and go. And in Act III (yes, three acts), Hassan El-Amin performs a stellar cameo as lawyer Mr. Bardolph. But the evening really belongs to Lettice and Lotte.

A real corker

Though Schaffer’s inspired names and places tilt Lettice and Lovage toward farce — or at least comedy — and parts of it are indeed very funny, the work seesaws among genres. As one of his later works (1987), in a sense it’s a “buddy play."

Lettice and Lovage ran at the Globe for two years, one of the longest runs in London theatrics. Shaffer created it for his own buddy, Dame Maggie Smith, so you’d expect the title character to be a real corker. Pirkl Tague plays her with Shakespearean gusto, tempered by an insightful grace.

Flamboyant Lettice veers into hyperbole and flies into the dramatic stratosphere. “Fantasy floods in where fact leaves a vacuum” is one of her many dicta, but there is no vacuum at the heart of Pirkl Tague’s skillful, exuberant characterization.

Lotte’s toe-the-line mentality and ramrod-straight worldview, coupled with a need for accurate historicity, initially pit the women against each other. As a foil for the lead, this character could easily be a shadow of the incandescent Lettice. But that’s absolutely not the case in this production.

Heflin’s elfin quality usually points her toward women of elegance and savoir-faire. Here, she pads up, hunkers down, and delivers an unexpectedly rich performance that makes the evening a true theatrical partnership. Act II becomes an extended duet as the women, at first wary, gradually find an unexpected friendship that becomes a beacon of salvation for them both.

Bigger is better

Talky and filled with Britishisms, this play could turn tedious, but under Steve Tague’s deft directorial hand the evening moves briskly. Conceptually and physically, it’s shoehorned into REP’s small Studio Theatre, a challenge for both Tague and his players, since this black box doesn’t have the spatial scope to allow for the play’s physicality. Stylistically, it would seem better suited to the company’s larger proscenium theatre. But though this tight space makes the big blocking and required long stage crosses nearly impossible, Tague and company achieve a satisfying balance.

By tempering the grandiosity of Lettice’s language and the play’s overblown situations, they don’t overwhelm the nearby audience. And in this close-up production, every shift and nuance in the dramatic pattern is made clear.

The room also set a challenge for scenic designer Stefanie Hansen. With the exception of one long, distracting set change, she manages the space and adds quirky accents. A hedgehog newel post and over-the-top décor in Lettice’s apartment are all the more witty for being so clearly visible.

Andrea Barrier’s costumes cleverly span the spectrum from Lettice’s theatrical garb (you can’t really call it clothes) to Lotte’s tightly woven civil-servant wardrobe and 28 Fustian House-tourist quick changes.

As people seem to care less and less about truth or history, Lettice’s well-meaning but misguided embellishments and her motto — “Enlarge! Enliven! Enlighten!” — seem still relevant, even prescient.