Here’s betting that Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar had no inkling that his 1924 drawing-room comedy “Play at the Castle” would be enjoying life onstage almost 100 years later.
It was first translated into English and adapted in 1926 by P.G. Wodehouse as “The Play’s the Thing.” Fast forward to 1984 when Tom Stoppard adapted it again, this time as “Rough Crossing.”
Now playwright Paul Slade Smith is taking a crack at it. His “The Angel Next Door” is having its world premiere at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach, where Smith’s “Unnecessary Farce” (in 2015) and “The Outsider” (in 2020) were big hits. Following this engagement, “The Angel Next Door” will move to Laguna Playhouse, which NC Rep Artistic Director David Ellenstein and Managing Director Bill Kerlin also run.
It was Ellenstein who commissioned Smith to write “The Angel Next Door.
“I’d never gotten that amazing call before,” recalled Smith, who is also an accomplished actor. “I’ve always wanted to adapt something, to take one of the old plays and have somebody else do the hard work of figuring out the plot. I just get to work on the jokes.”
But Smith acknowledges “It isn’t quite as cut and dried as that. I changed the setting. I changed the gender of two of the characters and it has a more modern sensibility. It’s written for today’s audiences.”
In Smith’s adaptation, a gathering of eccentric theater types quickly turns chaotic and does so at the sharp, rapid pace for which he is known.
“It’s a behind-the-curtain farcical theme,” said Smith. “I’ve never written a play about theatrical people before. They are fun to spend time with.”
The production will be directed by Ellenstein and features a cast that includes Thomas Edward Daugherty (a standout earlier this year in New Village Arts’ “The Ferryman”), Erin Noel Grennan, James Newcomb, Elinor Gunn, Barbara E. Robertson and Taubert Nadalini.
Smith said he’d long had “Play at the Castle” in the back of his mind as a possibility for a new adaptation, perhaps as a musical.
“Now that I’ve written the play,” he said, “I can say it’d be a lousy musical because it’s so fast-paced, and the last thing you want to do is stop and sing a song.”
Musical theater is in Smith’s background as an actor, having performed in “Finding Neverland,” “Wicked” and “The Phantom of the Opera” among other shows. Acting in general has provided Smith with key insights into writing for actors who perform in his own plays.
“Writing as an actor has influenced me in that I never want to write roles that are unsatisfactory,” he said. “I want everybody to have fun or meaningful moments onstage. I want every character to have somewhere to go.”
Smith has somewhere to go himself after “The Angel Next Door”: He’ll be headed next to Montgomery, Ala., to play Ebenezer Scrooge in Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s “A Christmas Carol.”
‘The Angel Next Door’
When: Previews, Sept. 6-8. Opens Sept. 9 and runs through Oct. 1. Showtimes, 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays.
Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach
Tickets: $49-$74
Phone: (858) 481-1055
Online: northcoastrep.org
Coddon is a freelance writer.