Play addresses war

Grand Valley's final production of the season, Robert Sherwood's 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Idiot's Delight, has turned out to be a topical play for a nation moving toward a foreign war.

The play takes place on the eve of WWII in a posh Alpine resort at the Italian/Swiss border, where a trainload of Europeans and Americans are temporarily detained by the threat of hostilities. The travelers are an eccentric international group that include the vulgar but lovable American Harry Van and his six traveling blonde showgirls ¿ who, as it turns out, keep the travelers' hope alive with their song-and-dance routines. At the center of the action is the love affair that develops between the irrepressible Harry Van and the inscrutable Russian Irene, who, with the war erupting around them, fight to stay together as the bombs start falling.

Far from being a serious manifesto for or against war, Sherwood's play is a romantic comedy that plunges somewhat 'innocent' but well-meaning Americans into the lion's den of pre-war Europe, said faculty stage director Roger Ellis. The play, which deals with the tragic and inescapable momentum of global war in the late 1930s, has become strangely timely in light of recent world events, noted Ellis. 'I really had no idea a year ago when I selected the play that we'd find ourselves in much the same situation as the characters in the play.'

Idiot's Delight is presented in seven performances:March 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m.
March 23 and 29 at 2 p.m.
Louis Armstrong Theatre, Performing Arts Center, Allendale
Tickets: $10 general public, $7 seniors, $5 all college students, and $2.50 K-12.
The play is appropriate for all ages.
Box office (open 12-5 p.m. weekdays): (616) 331-2300
Idiot's Delight received rave reviews when it premiered at Washington's National Theatre in 1936, starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. In 1939 it was made into a film starring Clark Gable and Norma Shearer ¿ most remembered for Gable's song-and-dance routine to Puttin' on the Ritz.

Grand Valley's production features a cast of 30 student actors, singers, musicians and dancers. Costumes from the Guthrie and Indiana Repertory theaters, live pyrotechnics, and an onstage orchestra all contribute to the upbeat tone and excitement of the two-hour show.

Stage manager is theater student Rodel Salazar; heading up the cast are Trinity Bird and Melissa Fortino in the leading roles of Harry Van and Irene. For more cast, crew and show information, please see gvsu.edu/theatre.