The plot of The Grouch, about Knemon (Joseph Costa), an unsociable and cantankerous old "grouch" who won't have anything to do with his neighbors and expends a great deal of time and energy keeping all suitors away from his daughter, builds upon a series of funny encounters, confounding confrontations and just-plain-silly doings between him and the members of the mountainside community. If his comeuppance and a happy ending for the lovers are a foregone conclusion, it is getting to that point that provides the makings for the merry moral denouement.
As the central, mostly one-note character, Costa is, nevertheless, persuasively disagreeable and always fun to watch. In keeping with the Greek comedy tradition, the horned Pan (Joe Discher) speaks the prologue and nimbly moves through the action in his woolly lamb-skin trousers, with time out for a sweet vocal and a tune on his pipes. The action, and there is plenty of it, is of a boisterous and bombastic nature with barely time for Sostratos (played with an amusing reckless panache by Andrew McCallum), the son of a wealthy Athenian, to test his romantic inclinations toward Knemon's daughter Myrrhine (played by a perky Carol Caton). Willing to go to any lengths to ingratiate himself to Knemon, Sostrato attempts to pass himself off as a poor farmer. In one hilarious moment, Sostrato attempts to carry a mattock to dig with the farmers in the fields. Even funnier is his return when he is unable to stand up straight.
There is a vigorous performance by Coleman Zeigen, who, as Knemon's stepson and neighbor, attempts -- although he distrusts Sostratos' intentions -- to play go-between Sostratos and Knemon. Matthew Sigl, as Pyrrhias, Sostrato's slave, gets the play's first laughs as he, in a state of exhaustion and fear, gives a frantic account being attacked and chased by Knemon. As performance, style and character are more important than plot, it should be noted that James Michael Reilly, as a temperamental but irrepressible cook, gets plenty of comic mileage requesting a pot from the grouch, as does David Foubert, as a slave...all in vain. Only when a mattock is lost in the well by Knemon's maidservant Simiche (given to hysterics by Corinne Edgerly) and Knemon falls in trying to retrieve it is there a hopeful turnabout in the resolution.
What with the uniting of lovers, some Greek inspired dancing divertissements, a born-again Knemon, and a few bows to the heavens whenever a plane flies overhead, The Grouch plays out its moral with invigorating mirth. The audience is urged to join in the dancing, a bonus participation that will be hard to resist.
