Greg Butell in Harvey (Vida Bikales)
80 years after it earned Mary Chase the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Harvey is still a major crowd-pleaser, offering audiences a laughable premise belying surprising poignancy. The Barn Players Community Theatre’s current production is a lovely reminder of why we keep coming back to this classic so many years on.
In The Barn Players’ production, Greg Butell stars as Elwood P. Dowd, a man who dedicates his time to two activities, usually simultaneously: drinking and making friends. Dowd takes a genuine interest in developing a deep bond with every person he meets—this is a man who invites telemarketers to family parties—but one friend stands above the rest (literally and figuratively). Elwood’s best friend in the world is a six- (or maybe six-and-a-half) foot-tall white rabbit named Harvey.
Butell is a charming Elwood—a little dopey but endearing in his obliviousness to others’ inability to see Harvey, let alone their refusal to believe he exists. His unflappably affable nature only further exasperates his sister Veta (Jeannie Blau) and her daughter Myrtle Mae (Johanna Quigley), who are desperate to hide him away. Blau’s Veta is the perfect foil to Butell’s Elwood, as she remains grounded and even largely relatable in her vexation at her blithely fanciful brother. (Myrtle Mae takes things further, salivating at the thought of life without her uncle by any means necessary.) Both Blau and Quigley are hilarious in their opposition to Elwood, earning many of the show’s biggest laughs. Meanwhile, Butell does a wonderful job making the character of Elwood his own—no easy feat for a role so inextricably linked in most audiences’ minds to Jimmy Stewart’s iconic performance in the 1950 film adaptation.
The supporting cast here is solid across the board. Kisha Henry is a particular standout as Ruth, a nurse won over by Elwood’s charms, delivering even the most acerbic one-liners with sweetness and sincerity. The real show-stealer, though, is Brandon Scalf’s ingenious set design. (With scenic art by Billy Blob and construction by Bill Wright.) The play has two locations: the library of the Dowds’ stately home and the reception area of the institution where Veta tries to have her brother committed. Rather than go with realistic, representational depictions of the settings, the sets resemble large-scale hand-drawn sketches of the locations. The concept is beautiful in its simplicity and effective, immediately aligning us with Elwood and his effortlessly fantastical view of the world. Lighting designer Zach Dulny’s washes of bold colors against the black and white sets give things an extra boost of dreaminess.
The visuals go a long way in making the 80-year-old classic feel fresh. Director Andy Garrison keeps the pace moving at a swift clip and even broken up by two intermissions, the play keeps a spring in its step from start to finish. It can be easy for the ridiculousness of Harvey’s premise to overpower its deeper themes and for the play to veer into farce territory. But at its core, and as uproariously funny as it may be, Harvey is earnest in its presentation of ideas of fantasy vs. reality, joy vs. judgment, hope vs. cynicism. The Barn’s production is full of laughs but it maintains the play’s tenderness and thoughtfulness beautifully as well.
“Harvey,” a production of The Barn Players Community Theatre, runs through January 19 at the Johnson County Arts and Heritage Center, 8788 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park. For more information, visit www.thebarnplayers.org/.
