While there is no honour among thieves, there is certainly a mutual respect.
Why else would con-extraordinaire Lawrence Jameson (Jonathan Goad) agree to take a young nickel-and-dimer like Freddy Benson (Liam Tobin) under his wing?
A good question to ponder at the opening night of the Stratford Festival’s musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Avon Theatre.
The eccentric, fabulously rich Jameson just couldn’t resist the mentorship opportunity but he quickly learned his protege was no spring chicken and had a few sleezy tricks of his own up his sleeve.
Benson put on an award winning performance to scare off Jolene Oakes (crowd favourite Michele Shuster), a feisty, red-headed Oklahoman hell bent on securing Jameson as her next husband, before fleeing town after meeting Jameson’s boundary-challenged, armpit sniffing fake brother.
A bigger test awaited the dastardly duo when Christine Colgate (Shakura Dickson) rolled into the French Riviera town, her naivete, and apparent wealth, so intriguing.
A contest to swindle $50,000 is quickly agreed upon and both men switch characters to an army sergeant confined to a wheelchair, treated by Goad’s Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Emil Schaffhausen.
All appears to go well until the inevitable plot twist leaves both men stunned, and impressed.
But one more big opportunity, this time with a third party, will soon present itself.
The music and dance scenes are exhilarating and a strong supporting cast adds a hilarious sub plot with the awkward courtship, turned steamy hook-ups, of Muriel Eubanks (Sara-Jeanne Hosie) and Andre Thibault (Derek Kwan).
Director Tracey Flye has described the world of the scoundrels as a “whirlwind of mayhem and confusion, of vulgarity versus sophistication, of discovery and choice, of longing and love and unexpected revelation.”
Though the characters mask their true selves and intentions, Flye said, “there is an untapped humanity, a loneliness and longing for something else.”
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels runs until Oct. 25.
