STAGE REVIEW : ‘Holiday’ Trundles Comedy Back to the Drawing Room

Maybe the reason that drawing room comedy has fallen out of favor is that drawing rooms are in such short supply these days.

It’s just impossible to find the proper spot to sit around in one’s satin smoking jacket, sip champagne and riffle through those stacks of invitations to simply ripping parties on either side of the Atlantic.

Recognizing that fact, Cal State Fullerton student Gregory Farmer has returned to the drawing room and to 1944 to write a new comedy that capitalizes on an old format. “Never on a Holiday” is in the tradition of all those ‘40s comedies that feature a slightly jaded, decidedly glamorous couple surrounded by eccentric types who entangle them in all sorts of crazy plot complications.

Sound familiar? Like a favorite old movie that pops up on Saturday afternoon TV, “Never on a Holiday” is comfortable. We know what to expect, and director Jerry V. Pickering and his cast deliver it. The wit is dry. The laughs are plentiful. And logic only occasionally intrudes on the story line.

Celebrated playwright Frederick Graham and his elegant actress/wife, Constance Prescott, have escaped to their rural estate in New England for what they hope will be a quiet Christmas in the country. He wants to polish the new script he’s written for her; she plans to break the news that she wants to do Chekhov instead.

Then the unexpected house guests start arriving, and the fun begins. Suspension of disbelief is mandatory, of course. But bons mots, not logic, are what matter, and Farmer fires off some memorable zingers at nearly everyone’s expense. He also has an eye for period detail, complemented here by the distinctive costumes designed by Gwynne Osborne.

The capable cast features Farmer himself as Frederick--so dry he almost crackles--and Anne James as a convincingly warm and wise Constance. Leslie Baldwin and Charles E. Gallagher make a good pair as the flighty blond debutante and the up-tight young Navy lieutenant. When she levels her sights on him, it’s virtually a fait accompli --and in the best tradition of drawing room romance, he never knows what hit him.

‘NEVER ON A HOLIDAY’ A Cal State Fullerton Department of Theatre and Dance production of the Gregory Farmer play. Directed by Jerry V. Pickering. With Laura Berkley, Anne James, Ron McPherson, Gregory Farmer, Aarow Bond, James Edward Elmore, Joanne Schultz, Leslie Baldwin, Kathleen Griffin, Charles E. Gallagher, Brein Ellis Mason. Set design Richard R. Deussen II. Costume design Gwynne Osborne. Lighting design Daniel S. Volonte. Sound design Louis Villaescusa. Plays at 8 p.m. tonight; at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and at 5 p.m. Sunday. Closes Sunday. Tickets $4-$6. Recital Hall, Cal State Fullerton, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton; (714) 773-3371.