By Sarah Duarte

When I heard that my favorite actor, Sir AJ Jaffari, was going to be in a straight play I knew that I had to go (immediately after a thorough eye roll that he was attempting a non-musical). Alongside a delightful cast of hilarious folks, the actors bring a vibrant energy to the Limelight show, Unnecessary Farce in Morgan Hill with South Valley Civic Theatre.

Unnecessary Farce is an award-winning comedy by Paul Slade Smith. The show takes the audience alongside a pair of cops on their first undercover mission, following the antics that go along with forbidden romance, mistaken identities and an unintelligible Scotsmen. Did I forget to mention that there are eight doors? Eight!

And now… onto the review.

Cast: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I know what you’re thinking, she’s just going to chat about how wonderful AJ is because he takes care of all the podcast tasks that she doesn’t want to do, but you’re wrong – this kid is so talented. I was such a proud friend watching how much he’s grown as an actor and entertainer. AJ’s comedic timing was truly stunning and he was able to maintain genuine interactions with other characters onstage that, although the premises were ridiculous, the relationships were real. Enough about that star.

The cast for this show is small, a total of seven actors, which really means that everyone needs to pull their weight if the show is going to come together. Eshani More (Billie) played the newbie cop, unable to remember to not wear her uniform on an undercover assignment (“Oh my God!”). She brought a charming naivety to the role that made me really want to root for her to save the day in the end. Well, maybe I never thought that she’d save the day, but at the very least not mess everything up.

Michael Grimm and Robin Harris play the Mayor and his wife. Both are characters that spend a majority of the show flitting in and off stage sporadically, but each made such strong character choices that they were memorable and allowed for surprises throughout the show.

Another favorite onstage of mine was Ethan Glasman, playing Agent Frank. Ethan mixed a good amount of physical humor into the delivery of his lines that was so seamless that it helped the jokes to keep at a quick pace during the show. I was sitting up at the front of the audience, but I will say that this allowed for seeing many of his hysterical facial expressions. That being said, this is a fairly small house which means there’s the opportunity to see all of the actor’s facial expressions from most seats.

Theater: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The production took place in the Morgan Hill Playhouse, located in the charming downtown Morgan Hill (need restaurant recommendations? Hit me up, I’m a local). I love that this is a smaller house where nearly every seat has an excellent view. Typically, for musicals, I would suggest that you grab a seat in the middle and up rows because of the pit, but I sat in one of the cafe tables that they had available and it was a great view.

The lobby has charming decorations as always, a photo opportunity booth, and a wonderful concession stand that offers fresh, themed cocktails and treats. There’s a large amount of free parking within a block of the theater.

Production: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5  I really enjoyed this production, and let’s all remember – I don’t like “straight” plays. This was a hilarious show that was really able to come to life because of the sets. The entire show takes place in two hotel rooms, but the spatial configuration of the set allowed the physicality of the jokes to be amplified.

Speaking of sets, like I said before, there were eight doors. Perhaps this is not impressive in it’s own right, but it was impressive when nine doors are all part of chaotic choreography of the actors constantly entering and exiting. Choreography isn’t usually something that is mentioned in a non-musical, but I cannot think of another way to describe what was happening with the actors and doors. The timing was impeccable, and it had to be for plot points to make sense. (I’m not going to lie, it made me a little anxious at times because I just kept worrying that someone was going to miss a cue, but there were none missed that I noticed).

The actors were clearly heard throughout the show, and the lighting made sure that everything was seen. I wish I had more to say on that, but let’s face it, it was an instance of everything working so well that I hardly noticed it was there because there were no mistakes.

Finally, I’d love to give a shout out to the prop master Lori Foster for designing props that really enhanced the production and looked like they were easy for the actors to use. My favorite was the camera that was clearly seen behind a ficus, and yet many characters ignored.

Unnecessary Farce closes it’s run this Saturday, May 17th, so get your tickets fast here.

(*and if you can’t make it to this show, visit svct.org to get tickets to their next show The Prom, opening June 20th)