UNIVERSITY THEATRE OFFERS NIGHT OF FARCE

"The world's not so crazy ... It's the people in it. Life's pretty simple if you just relax."

That's the credo Grandpa otherwise known as Martin Vanderhof and masterfully played by University Theatre veteran Alden Field lives by, creating an oasis of calm and security and good sense around which swirls a veritable dervish of activity by assorted family members and peripheral figures.

We're speaking, of course, of the delightful three-act comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, "You Can't Take It With You," opening tonight at Forrest H. Rose Theatre on the Southeast Missouri campus. Curtain time is 8 p.m. and performance will be repeated Saturday night, as well as Nov. 5, 6, and 7, and 12, 13 and 14.

Three weekends to enjoy this outwardly zany but deeply satisfying 1930s farce that, in the comment and concept of crafty and craftsmanlike director Robert W. Dillon Jr. bears the "simple message that wealth and status do not always mean happiness," and that to "follow our bliss" might ease much of the frenetic tension that plagues today's society.

Studded solidly with remarkably fine performances, University Theatre's production of "You Can't Take It With You" features an almost even mix of experienced and new talent in its 19-member cast a happy combination.

Ya gotta see it to believe it to describe the wild assortment of activity that fills the stage (a set beautifully designed by Dennis C. Seyer and executed by a talented crew) from start to finish would be impossible, but a nibble here and there of the characters may whet your appetite.

Grandpa walked out on a successful but dreary business career 35 years ago and has been enjoying life thoroughly ever since. He isn't particularly perturbed when Uncle Sam comes looking for the income tax he doesn't believe in paying, and quietly stays out of everybody's business until ... well, we'll get to that later. Suffice it to say that IRS man Henderson (Jeff Greenfield) is completely buffaloed by his attitude.

His daughter, Penelope Sycamore (Lisa Moses) once pursued painting, but took up playwriting when a typewriter was delivered by mistake eight years ago.

Penny's gentle husband, Paul (Steve Weiss) is "into dynamite" he loves making fireworks and periodic explosions in the basement and elsewhere have long since ceased to cause even an eye-blink among the usual inhabitants of the household, although they are a bit disconcerting to others.

Essie Carmichael (Robin Lynn Habel), the elder Sycamore daughter, is a constantly twirling would-be ballerina who concocts varied candies which are apparently in fair demand.

The candies are sold by her husband Ed (George Kralemann), who plays the xylophone and has a passion for printing (his press is on-stage as well as the xylophone).

Household chores, such are they are, get done by the live-in made (by whom she's paid isn't quite clear), Rheba (Kira Birr) and her boyfriend, Donald (Tim Stroud), who's "on relief" and has to be careful about earning money that might interfere with that income, but always seems eager to "help out."

Two other household "fixtures" are Mr. DePinna (Dan Akre), who came one day to deliver ice and has stayed ever since, helping Paul produce and market his fireworks, and Boris Kolenkhov (Patrick Rebmann), a Russian ex-patriot who's Essie's ballet teacher and enjoys talking politics with Grandpa.

Central to the story, however, is lovely Alice (Amy Monfort), the younger Sycamore daughter, who, unlike her family, is in daily contact with the "real" world, working in an office.

Alice loves her family dearly though "I know they do rather strange things ... But they're gay and they're fun and ... there's a kind of nobility about them."

She's right, of course, but she is also very much in love with her boss's son, Tony Kirby (Jay Cross), who reciprocates, not only in loving her but in seeing her family as being loving and understanding and utterly wonderful.

Inevitably, of course, Alice feels the conflict between the free-wheeling lifestyle of her family and the staid, moneyed, Wall Street existence of Tony's, and tries to break off their relationship.

Hilarious complications arise when Tony's "proper" mother and father (Kara Cracraft and Scott Hamann) arrive a night early for dinner, finding the family's insouciant chaos in full tilt, added to by the presence of an actress Gay Wellington (Tina Schaefer) overcome not so much by the spirit of the evening as by the spirits she has imbibed, plus the sudden appearance of G-Men (DeWayne Bowling and Richard Bascom) who raid the place because of Ed's "revolutionary" broadsides inserted in the boxes of candy he delivers.

After the lot of them spend a night in jail (discomfiture would be a mild word for the reaction of the elder Kirbys), Alice determines that she must leave, despite protestations from everyone, especially Tony, who, it turns out, deliberately brought his parents on the wrong night so they could see what a "real" family was.

It is, of course, Grandpa who saves the day. Mr. Kirby comes to persuade Tony to come home, but discovers, with some subtle and not-so-subtle help from Grandpa and Tony himself that Wall Street may not really be his cup of tea, after all, just as Tony has already made up his mind it's for the birds.

Maybe that's one reason there's such gaiety when everybody sits down, haphazardly as usual, to a dinner graced by blintzes produced by none other than Grand Duchess Olga Katrina, one of Kolenkhov's expatriate friends.

And maybe Mr. Kirby finally realizes that he'd better get his saxophone out of its hiding place in the closet and accept the logic of Grandpa's words: "You've got all the money you need. You can't take it with you."

And we all echo Grandpa's Grace: "We've all got our health and as far as anything else is concerned we'll leave it to You. Thank You."

Of course, there IS something we can take with is a happy glow of an evening well spent in laughter. Again, in Grandpa's words, "Life is kind of beautiful if you let it come to you."