STAGE REVIEW : ‘Divorce’ Offers Some Ironic Counseling

The possibility of divorce can save marriages.

That’s what happens in “Let’s Get a Divorce” ( “Divorcons” ), a 110-year-old farce by Victorien Sardou and Emile de Najac. It has been revived at Santa Paula Theater Center without the sharp sense of style that it deserves, but its clever ironies still create a modicum of amusement.

Cyprienne (Rachel Babcock) is tired of her two-year marriage to the older Henri (Richard Livingston). She’s attracted to his dashing younger cousin Adhemar (Brian James Schwartz)--and she vows to change husbands, as soon as divorce becomes legal.

But Henri outwits his wife and her lover. He gives them his blessing. Suddenly, in Cyprienne’s eyes, he assumes the role of sophisticate, while Adhemar is reduced to a jealous, fumbling would-be husband.

The play is ultimately more romantic than the usual knockabout farce. This aspect of it may seem out of date in the age of “War of the Roses.” Still, some couples do remarry after spending enough time apart from each other. “Let’s Get a Divorce” condenses the psychology of such cases into three mostly well-made acts, throwing in just the right amount of exaggeration to qualify as a farce.

After a colorless first act, Babcock develops a giddy charm, and she delivers Cyprienne’s pointed commentaries on the sexual double standard with fine fervor. Schwartz strikes some funny poses, and Livingston makes a well-charted transformation from fuming tyrant to urbane hero.

But Livingston also stumbled over some of the wordplay last Saturday. Director David Ralphe has eliminated a few pages of cutting comments about the roadblocks to divorce proposed in the then-new French laws, but his staging still needs quicker pacing, as well as a more professional supporting cast.

Some of Ralphe’s choices are overdone, such as when a servant laughs hysterically over an offstage event, inadvertently underlining how much more amused he is than the audience at that point. Yet other elements are underdone, such as Richard Gregg’s set.

Flaws notwithstanding, the play is so seldom staged that it may be worth the drive for followers of French farce. Though George Bernard Shaw ridiculed the work of co-author Sardou as “sardoodledom,” the Santa Paula production is good enough to demonstrate that this play deserves another look.

At 125 S. Seventh St., Santa Paula, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m., through July 29. $11; (805) 525-4645.