La Jolla Playhouse opened an uproarious, blarney-infused comedy on Sunday, May 22, with an unpronounceable title, “A Dram of Drummhicit,” named for the local, single-malt liquor drunk only at co-authors Arthur Kopit and Anton Dudley’s wee fictional island off the coast of Scotland. As they say, drummhicit is “the closest thing to eating a campfire that you’ll ever do.” Your dram is therefore to be followed with a chaser of the viscous, local water. The mere thought — after watching the mucous-colored chaser poured for American newcomer Charles Pearse (Lucas Hall) at Mackenzie Stewart’s (Kelly AuCoin) tavern — evokes the gag reflex. Rev. Hagglehorne (Larry Paulsen) is at wit’s end over his parishioners, who are prone to singing madrigals and performing pagan rites over the Bog Bodies. Bog Bodies are Iron Age folk who keep popping up all over the golf course that is being built by American developer Robert Bruce (Murphy Guyer). The likable, rather naïve Pearse is actually Bruce’s “fixer,” front man and troubleshooter. He has come to deal with the Bog Bodies, of which there are at least a dozen. He hopes that British Museum anthropologist Felicity Oliphant (Kathryn Meisle) will take the bodies away, but she is more interested in researching the bog, into which the bog people were reverse-raptured. Pearse seeks William Ross (Alan Mandell), who negotiated the land deal for the islanders and knows much more than he reveals. Meanwhile, a man with both island and developer connections, Harry Morgan (Joseph Culliton), is seeking Ross, too. After rescuing Felicity from the fairies that live under the mountainous rock that looms upstage, Pearse is struck by lightning (no doubt the work of the island’s fairy population) and taken to the home of fisherman Angus MacLeod (John Ahlin) and his daughter, Fiona (Polly Lee). Fiona, who is a fairy, recognizes that Charles is at least part fairy; after all, he saw the Washerwoman — and only fairies see her. The hilarity climaxes with the arrival of Robert the Bruce, as the natives call him, a dangerous round of golf, the funeral of Ross, and the conversion of Rev. Hagglehorne. A seven-member ensemble, comprising San Diegan Ron Choularton and UCSD MFA students, swells the company to 16. The characters are redolent of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe” and Lerner and Loewe’s “Brigadoon.” The madrigals, especially “Sing Coo Coo,” are hysterical. John Gromada is composer/sound designer. The company — each one a memorable character — could not be better. The language has enough burr for flavor without obfuscation, thanks to dialect coach Eva Barnes. Lucas Hall is a veteran of the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival as well as Darko Tresnjak’s award-winning, got-legs “Merchant of Venice” for Theater for a New Audience. Mandell is fondly remembered in the Playhouse production of “Restoration.” Lee makes her Playhouse debut as Fiona, and Meisle is remembered for her riveting performance in “Creditors.” The plot’s complications are purposefully outrageous; the invented fairy language, a hoot; the situations and the premise, fanciful and perversely funny, though by the end of the play that premise seems not broad and deep enough to sustain the play’s length. But after all, laughter is more important than making complete sense. And this is the play’s world premiere, rewritten minute by minute until curtains rise. Visual wonders include David Zinn’s scenic design, which turns inside out repeatedly and includes a fabulous fairies’ realm, tons of fog, and the bog; costume designer David C. Woolard’s flavorful village costumes; Tara Knight’s projections; and Philip Rosenberg’s lighting. Sitting atop all this is Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley, a master at staging large companies and world premieres. “A Dram of Drummhicit” continues Tuesdays through Sundays through June 12. Go to www.lajollaplay- house.org or call (858) 550-1010 for information and tickets.
