Declare' keeps audience laughing with fast-paced comedic timing

    People join communities for many reasons. They band together to solve problems, right wrongs or provide support. But that's not all that communities are good for. In the world of theater, the audience and cast alike can join together for nothing more than a good laugh.
    Laughter is the aim of the Tufts drama department's French farce, "Anything to Declare?" written by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber, opening tonight in the Balch Arena Theatre. The play is a "bedroom farce," a style of openly sexual humor that was popular in France at the end of the 19th century.
    "The show is sort of cartoony," Director and drama professor Laurence Senelick said. "It's one of those shows with no ulterior motive but to be a good time, and I thought these days we all needed a good laugh."
    The play follows the trials of the recently wed aristocrat Robert de Trevlin, who is informed by his wife's parents that he has three days to "make her happy," or else she will be given to another suitor. He frantically attempts to fulfill their wishes, but a series of unfortunate circumstances blocks his success at every step of the way.
    Like any farce, the show is rife with rapid and unannounced entrances and exits, mistaken identities, schemes gone awry and ridiculous disguises. It is a very bawdy and physical show, and the small cast, comprised mostly of undergraduates with two graduate students, has worked tirelessly to bring an energetic, fast-paced and visual spectacle to the audience. There is a lot of slapstick humor, overseen by a fight captain in the cast. Many cast members have also taken stage combat courses here at Tufts. For many of the cast members, this is their first time doing a farce.
    "Before now I've always been in more serious roles," senior Sean Hefferon, who plays Robert de Trevlin, said. "Playing in a comedy has been really difficult. It's all about speed and timing. Our goal is to get the audience laughing because it's so ridiculous and happening so quickly."
    The entire ensemble has been extremely dedicated to their goal of giving the audience a good time. Members described the process of running scenes over and over again, working toward whipping the situations up into frenzied hilarity.
    "This show is really just laugh after laugh," sophomore Joanna Hausmann said, who plays ZéZé, "a woman of affairs." "I've had a hard time keeping a straight face in rehearsals."
    And, as always is the case in bedroom farces, double entendres and puns abound in this production. For example, when faced with the statement, "You will end up a patron of the arts yet!" a character responds, "Well, I've always wanted to be patronizing to someone." When feeling pestered by his wife about his impotence, another character yells, "I am not acting queer!" The show's abundance of one-liners, phallic symbols and suggestive gestures ensures that there is never a moment without comedy.
    The script may have been written a hundred years ago, but the jokes are still fresh. Senelick originally translated the show twelve years ago and is taking the opportunity to direct it for the first time here. His familiarity with the work is evident in the final result. Every line is fully understood and utilized by the director to its full potential.
    But why this play? Why bring in a parade of drunken camel dealers, cuckolds and whores to the Balch Arena Theatre? To bring together a community of people who want to laugh.
    "People watch movies by themselves these days, and entertainment is becoming a more solitary activity," said Senelick. "This is an experience I want to share. I love farce because it is instant gratification — either the audience laughs or it doesn't. And that can lead to a wonderful kind of communion."