‘Rivals’: Lively Comedy of Manners, Lunacy

Looking like the bride of Frankenstein as imagined by a French confectionery, Karesa McElheny delights as a propriety-bound, malaprop-spouting guardian of a rebellious young woman in the Knightsbridge Theatre’s production of “The Rivals,” Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18th century comedy about upper-class manners and the deceitful travails of courtship.

In the fashionable resort town of Bath in 1775, Mrs. Malaprop (McElheny) is watching over her niece, Lydia (Julia Coffey), who is as “headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.” Lydia is a pretty, pouty girl with the audacity to read romance novels smuggled in by her slyly mercenary maid, Lucy (Cara Murdoch Barker). Enraptured by tales of illicit romance, Lydia is determined to elope with someone beneath her station and thereby forfeit her large inheritance. The clever Jack Absolute (Christian Noble) pretends to be a lowly ensign to win Lydia’s love. But when his father, Sir Anthony (Robert Craig), becomes involved with Mrs. Malaprop and does some matchmaking of his own, Jack’s plot unravels.

Sheridan has populated this piece with plenty of buffoons who, under the direction of McElheny, are all played with exquisite timing and wit. Jack’s friend Bob Acre, a somewhat cowardly country bumpkin, is given a swaggering, large but likable rendition by Dana Moran. As the Irishman looking for a pretty dowry attached to a pretty girl, Jon Cohen is handsomely resolute and businesslike in his approach to romance.

The ladies’ gowns (by Valentino’s Costumes) are generally better than the men’s apparel and the stage props are a tad tacky, but these are minor faults compared to the glowing lunacy of the acting.

*

* “The Rivals,” Knightsbridge Theatre, Braley Building, 35 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends May 17. $15. (626) 440-0821. Running time: 2 hours 50 minutes.