Shaw Festival 2010 – Mary Chase's Harvey

Reviewed by Paula Citron

The Shaw Festival's production of Mary Chase's Harvey is an absolute delight. In fact, it is so endearing that you don't want the play to be over. What a tonic for today's mean times.

The hero is the always polite and courteous Elwood P. Dowd whose best friend is Harvey, an invisible large white rabbit. Harvey is a pooka, a benevolent gremlin from Irish folklore.

Dowd's sister Veta Louise wants to put Elwood in a psychiatric hospital and so begins the gentle high jinks. Even when the confusion approaches pandemonium, director Joseph Ziegler never lets the play descend into stupid farce. Rather, his main focus is on humanity and all the good things that the word conveys.

Peter Krantz is a perfect, unflappable Elwood, while Mary Haney does a wonderfully giddy turn as the set upon Veta. The rest of the large cast is terrific.

This is a play to warm your heart.

Harvey continues at the Royal George Theatre until Oct. 31.

Harvey
Shaw Festival 2010
Written by Mary Chase
Directed by Joseph Ziegler
Starring Peter Krantz, Mary Haney, Norman Browning, Guy Bannerman, Diana Donnelly and Gray Powell
Royal George Theatre, Apr. 1 to Oct. 31, 2010