Whidbey Playhouse

MY THREE ANGELS

Outside the Whidbey Playhouse it's August but inside its rehearsals for Sam and Bela Spewack's comedy "My Three Angels," directed by Linda Walbeck.  It is Christmas Eve, which softens the actor's shock a bit that at least the weather is similar.  "My Three Angels" is set in French Guiana in 1910 and there on December 24^th , it's one hundred and four degrees, and humid.

            The Ducotel family is in a less than holiday mood. The father, Felix Ducotel, played by Dave Myers is a failing shop keeper whose business is being threatened by the arrival of his cruelly capitalist cousin, Uncle Henri Trochard, played by Jim Siggens.  The fresh young daughter, Marie Louise Ducotel, played by Adrienne Hart, is about to learn that her fiancee, Paul Trochard, played by Wes Ralston has jilted her. The resourceful mother, Emilie Ducotel, played by Joyce Napoletano is trying to hold things together.

            Things look pretty bleak for this otherwise lovely family of "My Three Angels," but "...up on the roof top, click, click, click..." No, it's not the sound of the reindeer of Old Saint Nick.  It's the sound of three convict laborers repairing the roof.  The three are two murderers, played by Fred Conley and Jim Otruba, and an embezzler, played by Fil Baca.  Despite their crimes, these gentlemen have a code of their own, a sort of  "family values", that doesn't care for the cruelty being dished out by the uncle or the callowness paraded by his nephew.  In the end, the convicts conspire to introduce a dashing young French Lieutenant, played by Thomas Clatterbuck, to Marie Louise.

            "My Three Angels" is a good old fashion character driven story in which the plight of the kind Ducotel family, the combined crimes of the Uncle and his nephew, and the honor and resourcefulness of the prisoners are all nicely mixed with a good bit of humor and irony.