Quartermaine’s Terms

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

If Picasso had painted St. John Quartermaine’s portrait, his nose would be where an ear is suppose to be, his mouth would be on his forehead, his ears would be attached to his chin, and a silly grin would extend to the edge of the canvas.

Suzanna Wellens as Melanie, Fred Lewis as Windscape, and Chuck Wigginton as Quartermaine in Germinal Stage Denver’s production of Quartermaine’s Terms.

Simon Gray created a loveable, laughable, pathetic character who is everyone’s buddy, claims no life of his own, and is slowly coming unglued around the edges of reality.

Chuck Wigginton magnificently squeezes his facial expressions and body language to convey the depth and lack of to portray Quartermaine in the Germinal Stage Denver’s current production of Quartermaine’s Terms.

Published in 1981, and first produced in 1981 in Queen’s London, it was produced at Germinal Stage Denver in 1986. Following the lives of six teachers and their boss of the Cull-Loomis School of English for Foreigners in Cambridge in the 1960s, this could well be the subject for a relatively dull play. However, it is anything but dull with the brilliant writing, incisive direction by Ed Baierlein, and the carefully constructed characterizations by the exquisite cast.

Gray delves into a microscopic examination of the deteriorating school as another way of delving into the deterioration of the British Empire.

The two-act play takes place in the staff room where the teachers bounce in, saunter in, mindlessly waltz in and wander with their myriad complicated lives in between classes.

Eddie Loomis runs the school with his gay partner who is never seen on stage, but is referred to often. David Fenerty gives Eddie an elegant grandfather punch who surrounds his staff with family values, often referring to the staff as a family. On the way to the end of the play, Eddie’s partner dies, and Eddie slowly loses his physical grip on life becoming more and more debilitated, but hanging onto his family for all he is worth. Fenerty gives an outstanding performance as a “mother-henned” overseer, who cares deeply about his staff, but doesn’t always reveal his solutions hidden in his pocket and doesn’t always think it is necessary.

Jenny MacDonald takes on Anita Manchip tight-lipped and hair pulled back in a cutting severe mannerism. Anita’s husband, Nigel, a would-be writer also sees himself as a would-be Casanova. Everyone seems to know about his roving eye except Anita. Through the course of the three years the play takes place, she wins him back, has one child, and by the end is expecting a second. Her severity has melted, her hair flows freely, but she has a difficult time remembering exactly why she wanted him.

Marc K. Moran returns to the stage after a much too long absence in a challenging role he meets head-on as Mark Sackling. In a hyper hyphenated way, Mark is at his wits end, and hasn’t been to bed all weekend. His wife left him, taking his son Tom with her. Eddie fuses with a placid smile and polite English demeanor with “Mark isnŐt really going to grow a beard is he?” and “what about those sandals?” After all, there’s the school reputation. At the end of his wits, consumed by the disparaging turn of events, Moran filters high energy into the high stepping bulldogging Mark who feeds his despair with a walking run in and out of the staff room.

Careless, over eager accident-prone Derek Meadle arrives to take on a temporary position, full of overbearing eagerness to please, and hyper motivated enthusiasm. Todd Webster takes Derek for a wild ride that culminates with a different bandage covering various parts of his body from running into things, banging into things, or tripping over something. He comes in with a hole in his pants after an argument with his bicycle, insisting his name is Derek while Eddie consistently calls him Dennis.

Fred Lewis wears Henry Windscape’s academia with regalness showing some raggle taggleness around the edges. He once asked Melanie Garth (Suzanna Welens) to marry him, but ended up marrying someone else. Frequently posing with pipe in hand, he spends vacations touring “out-of-the-way urban architecture” giving the impression his self-importance far exceeds the reality of his teaching position.

Melanie wears her self-imposed put upon life style for all to see, doesn’t want to talk about it, but is offended when ignored. Wellens plays her inside out. Melanie is reluctantly saddled with caring for her mother who has had a stroke. Her life is now her mother, and Wellens plasters her with remorse and regret, while she also plays Mother Superior to the other staff members.

The staff room is their comfort zone where they can collapse into safety with each other as they all grapple over children, spouses, lovers, parents and of course, themselves.

It is in the grappling of their near soap opera lives that humor mingles with the ridiculous trapping the disintegration within its words. It is Quartermaine’s snoozing, fading into his staring into space, one laugh behind every joke, with a goofy grin sliding around his face that captures a good deal of the attention. He has no life beyond this room and all too eagerly offers to baby sit for other staff members, sometimes offering to do several things on a single night without realizing he has agreed to the impossible. There is strong resemblance to Alice’s Cheshire Cat who disappears before her eyes leaving behind only the grin. Even when the shoe falls at the end, all he wants is to be able to hang out in that safe room.

Off-stage characters are so delineated they almost seem to be part of the cast, as much as they are a part of the characters’ lives.

Pathos and laughter meet while much of Gray’s rhyme and reason slides in between the lines while directness and subtlety meet with locked arms.

Laughter gives way to probing thoughts with the stunning characterizations primed in detail under Baierlein’s ingenious direction. This is one play that should not be missed.