Meagen Miller
Contributing Writer
“On the Razzle” is a Comedy of Errors that is filled with shenanigans, mistaken identities, mis-interpreted orders, and romantic complications that leaves the audience wanting more.
“On the Razzle’ opened the season for Buckner Theater on Sept. 26. The play, written by Tom Stoppard, is an adaptation of an 1842 Viennese farce.
The farcical comedy contains multiple innuendos, disguised subtext and secret character objectives coming from within the dialogue. The play starts at Herr Zangler’s grocery store, located in a small Austrian Village. Zangler, the shop owner, leaves his grocery store in the hands of his two ‘trusty’ shopkeepers, Weinburl and Christopher. Sonders, a poor suitor that is after Zangler’s ward Marie, is constantly rejected by Zangler, due to his social status.
As Zangler sets off to spend time with his new mistress, Mme. Knorr, Sonders’s plans to rescue Marie, and the shopkeepers, hoping to catch a break, flee to Vienna. Once in Vienna, the shopkeepers spend the whole time trying to avoid Zangler, going through a series of hiding places and disguises. The play ends with Sonders, receiving a large amount of money, resulting in Zangler giving him his blessing to take Marie. Weinburl and Christopher return to the shop with no problems from Zangler.
The play will keep you laughing the whole time. Watching the play you are torn between wanting Weinberl and Christopher to have an adventure of a lifetime, and wanting them to stay in the grocery so no repercussions are faced from Zangler.
I felt as if the audience was completely engaged in the play. “On the Razzle” was definitely one to watch. Also be sure to check out the theater department’s next performance “The Reader’s Theatre,” opening on Halloween night.