Lessons in ‘What Every Woman Knows’

Charm is a sort of bloom on a woman that makes all other qualities irrelevant, according to Maggie, the provincial, self-deprecating Scottish spinster who believes herself utterly devoid of it.

Nothing could be further from the truth, however, as Ann Hearn’s nuanced performance makes clear in a hilarious and touching Theatre 40 revival of J.M. Barrie’s 1917 romantic fable, “What Every Woman Knows.”

Barrie, the playwright whose most famous creation, “Peter Pan,” lent its moniker to a psychological syndrome for arrested emotional development, had a unique talent for couching deep-seated human truths within fanciful tales.

Here, Barrie’s focus is on more adult intricacies of the heart, with a comical premise that pairs Maggie with John (Mark Bradford Hall), an ambitious but impoverished young student who has been breaking into her father’s house to get access to their extensive book collection.

Seizing perhaps the only opportunity Maggie might ever have, her father and brothers (Dan Peters, Michael Gough and Drew Wicks) strike a bargain with John to fund his education if he’ll agree to marry her.

This conniving clan is in many respects a precursor to the motherless family in N. Richard Nash’s “The Rainmaker,” and the similarities extend to both plays’ ability to find a way to keep optimism alive amid hard realities.

Though he goes ahead with the deal and pursues a successful career in politics with Maggie at his side, John never thinks of her as his emotional mate.

Believing herself unworthy of his affection, Maggie quietly rewrites his speeches, facilitating his social contacts while disguising her contributions.

As a result, John attributes his accomplishments to the intervention of providence.

This recipe for heartbreak puts the marriage to its ultimate test when John becomes infatuated with a pretty but empty-headed socialite (Fleur Phillips).

Where a more superficial writer might have lapsed into salacious farce or wrenching melodrama, Barrie chooses a more surprising--and satisfying--narrative with Maggie’s ingeniously unique strategy to fight for John.

Production values are undistinguished, but Stephen Tobolowsky’s direction mines surprising riches in Barrie’s neglected chestnut through the actors’ heartfelt performances that keep the whimsical plot firmly rooted in emotional truths.

The mix of battered integrity and stubborn blindness in Hall’s John is credible and endearing, while the steely determination beneath the deferential veneer of Hearn’s Maggie make for lively chemistry.

Dinah Anne Rogers and Michael Forest provide a poignantly mature contrast as former lovers who understand each other all too well.

Barrie’s unabashedly sentimental play goes a bit overboard in its idealization of women, but it still manages to show people’s capability to behave at their best.

*

“What Every Woman Knows,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 28. $15-18. (323) 936-5842. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.