HAWAII PACIFIC UNIVERSITY It's a family with diverse interests, that Sycamore clan (and that's putting it mildly). Yet all coexist semi-peacefully in HPU's production of Kaufman and Hart's "You Can't Take It With You."

The farce of destiny

'You Can't Take It With You' has
some timely links to its audience

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By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com

According to recent estimates, Hawaii has one of the highest rates of multigenerational cohabitation -- grandma, grandkids, various and sundry other relatives living under the same roof -- in the country. This can be quite a source of marital strain, especially among the middle generations, caught between the predictable stubbornness of the old and the equally predictable rebellions of the young. It can also be a source of tremendous hilarity, as George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart proved in "You Can't Take it With You," the 1936 Pulitzer Prize-winning play that opens tonight at Hawaii Pacific University.

To say that the Sycamore family at the comedy's center is "zany and eccentric" (to quote the HPU press release) is to err greatly on the side of understatement. Perhaps the opening stage directions put it best, the Sycamore living room described as a place where "meals are eaten, plays are written, snakes collected, ballet steps practiced, xylophones played, printing presses operated -- if there were room enough there would probably be ice skating."

Still, it's a world that feels strangely contemporary, with everyone living according to his whim and the chaos only rarely bridled by a hackneyed subplot (Alice Sycamore falls for Tony Kirby, who of course hails from a straitlaced and thoroughly conventional family).

Fireworks are ignited -- literally, in this case -- and situations complicate with awesome rapidity. But it isn't the craftsmanship of "You Can't Take it With You" that impresses the 21st-century audience member, but the comedy's full-throttle embrace of the pursuit of happiness as a uniquely American obsession.

"The title is part of the message," said director Joyce Maltby. "This is it, this is the now, and so much of our modern psychology tells people to be in the moment because we all know we can't count on tomorrow."

Maltby was of course referring to the events of Sept. 11 and the eerie way in which this show, along with HPU's earlier production of "The Dead," seemed timely in their wake. Both plays were selected long before September, though each has since been viewed through that prism, the Kaufman and Hart farce a reminder that "we can't live every day as a tragedy," as Maltby put it, and that each day presents a fresh opportunity to reinvent oneself.

"For instance, Grandpa Vanderhof (Sycamore family patriarch) found he wasn't having any fun when he was a Wall Street executive and finally said 'I've had enough of it' and quit. Now, as he says to another character, 'I do what I want to do, I go to the zoo, I read, I talk and I haven't had a bicarbonate of soda in 30 years.' "

For those now flipping the remote past America's New War, complete with its nightly updates on new restrictions of freedom and new definitions of our country's role on the world stage, "You Can't Take it With You" may resonate even more powerfully. That's one reason the play garnered such a huge audience in the '30s, running on Broadway for more than two years and spawning Frank Capra's Best Picture-winning film adaptation in 1938. A clown's response to the rise of fascism in Europe, the play was a gentle reminder of what we had to lose.

That may sound like a bit much to ask of a farce whose central incident is the much-anticipated meeting of the wacky Sycamores and snooty Kirbys -- on the wrong evening. ("Darling, will you ever forgive me?," says Tony to a sitcom-stunned Alice. "I'm the most dull-witted person in the world. I thought it was tonight.") But the spirit of the piece is so infectious, the wisecracks tossed off with such ease, that you can't finally dismiss it as mere witty repartee. The tone seems to emanate from some place deeper, that part of the American soul which seems to automatically make the most out of a less than desirable situation and where improvisation is raised to the level of art.

As the play announces, you can't take it with you. But then again, given the limitless horizons of liberty-soaked America, why would you ever want to go anywhere else?

'You Can't Take it With You' Presented by Hawaii Pacific University When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 4 p.m. Sundays through May 5 Where: HPU Theater, 45-045 Kamehameha Hwy (Windward campus) Cost: $14 general; $10 for seniors, military and students; $5 HPU students Call: 375-1282

http://www.hpu.edu

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