The very thought of a David Mamet work at Lamb’s Players Theatre causes one to revisit one wag’s recent reference to the Coronado theater company as “always courageous.” Not.
Usually known for stronger stuff like “Speed-the-Plow,” “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “American Buffalo,” Mamet is a considerable adapter, too ” for example, his excellent “Cherry Orchard.” The Coronado Mamet, too, is an adaptation and a fine one. In fact, Mamet’s “The Voysey Inheritance” is a Lamb’s match made in heaven and a glorious production to boot. It’s the kind of thing that Lamb’s does best, especially with Deborah Gilmour Smyth at the helm.
Mamet unveiled “The Voysey Inheritance” two years ago at New York’s Atlantic Theatre Company. The comedy concerns a potentially tragic and traditional crime ” misuse of trust funds (think J. David Dominelli). It’s adapted from Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 work and concerns the Voysey family, upper-crust denizens of Edwardian England.
The “inheritance,” which falls to the courageous and incorruptible Edward Voysey, is a mess inherited by his father before him ” namely, a lot of paper trust funds that pay interest, but the principal of which is long gone, spent by grandfather and father to support the Voysey family in grand style. In the first scene, Edward’s father (Jim Chovick) admits perpetuating the scam that Edward (a fine Jon Lorenz in his best role to date) has suspected, assuring his son that he has earnestly attempted to replenish the capital deficit left him by his own father.
A year later, Mr. Voysey is dead and Edward is left to clean up the mess and confess to his large family that they may indeed be a) scandalized and b) broke. Throughout the ensuing year, in which Edward seemingly makes some progress in his gargantuan restoration task, his fiancée, Alice (Ayla Yarkut in an understated and luminous performance), is by his side.
In various stages that range from stiff-upper-lip denial and petulance to overblown raging, the other family members, all well played and beautifully costumed by Jeanne Reith, are Edward’s mother (Glynn Bedington), three brothers (Major Booth Voysey, played by boom-voiced Jason Heil; the estranged Trenchard, played by Lance Arthur Smith; and the artistic Hugh, played by Kurt Norby), and two sisters (Ethyl, played by Season Duffy), and Honor, (played by Coleen Kollar Smith). Michael Harvey and Patrick Duffy play longtime trust-fund holders. Ralph Johnson is excellent as the other inheritance, the senior Voysey’s oily factotum, who expects his annual holiday bonus, in effect hush money, will continue.
With great subtlety and restrained mirth, Mamet lambastes the unflappable British aristocracy, unctuous piety and some extremely timely financial matters, all of which begin to crumble when the chips begin to fall. Gilmour Smyth, surely one of the city’s theatrical treasures, is up to the directorial challenge. She also creates the spot-on sound design. Robert Smyth’s rich, minimalist set is lovely, especially as lighted by Nate Parde.
“The Voysey Inheritance” plays through May 18 at Lamb’s Players Theatre, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. For tickets ($24-$56) and information, call (619) 437-6050 or visit www.lambsplayers.org.

‘Prelude’ at New Village Arts
When we fall truly in love, we are captured by the other’s essence. When we lose the beloved to death, we grieve not only for lack of their physical presence but the absence of their essential, transcendent being ” the part of the other that lingers with us for as long as we live.
Perhaps, as director Norman Rene was dying of AIDS (he succumbed in 1996), Rene and his longtime partner, playwright Craig Lucas, could have pondered their essential beings, perhaps even imagining the situation at the heart of Lucas’ “Prelude to a Kiss.”
Staged beautifully by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg at New Village Arts, Lucas’ sweet 1990 play is narrated by Peter (Joshua Everett Johnson), who recounts his meeting, courtship, wedding and honeymoon with Rita (Kristianne Kurner).
Engineered by Peter’s friend Taylor (Tim Parker), the two meet cute at a party. Peter, an appealing nerd, presents himself the next evening at the bar where the sleepless Rita works.
They fall in lust and then in love, certainly a miracle in itself.
At the reception following Peter and Rita’s wedding, an Old Man (Charlie Reindeau) appears and insists on kissing the bride, who is forthwith whisked away in a somewhat stunned state to a Jamaican honeymoon. It’s more than the old saw about once wed waking with a stranger in your bed. The young woman’s essence is changed and gone, apparently forever. She sleeps a lot, cuts the skin off her chicken, turns teetotaler and forgets her family situation, politics and literary frames of reference. Peter realizes the cause of Rita’s transformation and sets about making things right. To tell more would be a spoiler.
Whether or not one chooses to consider the magical elements metaphorical, “Prelude to a Kiss” is a charming piece, excellently performed by Johnson, Kurner, Reindeau and Parker. They are supported by Don Evans, Kathryn Herbruck, Jack Missett, Li-Anne Rowswell, Carlos Darze and Anyelid Meneses upon Esther Emery’s stem-and-tendril set, fashioned of metal.
Directed by Sonnenberg, the Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-nominated work runs through May 18, playing at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at New Village Arts Theatre, 2787-B State St., Carlsbad Village.
For tickets ($22-$26), call (760) 433-3245 or www.newvillagearts.org.