The Odd Couple At Drayton Entertainment
The Odd Couple, arguably the best thing ever written by Neil Simon, the United States’ Norm Foster, is getting a laugh-filled revival at Drayton Entertainment’s St. Jacobs Country Playhouse.
The basic premise is no doubt familiar to everyone thanks to the long-running sitcom the 1965 Broadway hit inspired.
The origin story for The Odd Couple begins as divorced sports writer Oscar Madison (Randy Hughson) is hosting his weekly poker game with Speed (Terry Barna), Roy (Jacob James), Vinnie (Roy Lewis), and cop Murray (Brad Rudy).
When the usually punctual Felix Ungar (Lee MacDougall), a news writer for CBS, makes his belated appearance the gang learns that his wife of twelve years has thrown him out and he is more than a wee bit suicidal.
Oscar’s friendly offer of a place to stay for a few days turns into the roommate arrangement from hell. Inveterate slob Oscar and fastidious neatnik Felix are the very definition of oil meets water. “Odd couple” barely begins to describe the vast differences in temperament that define these friends destined to become foes.
As Felix turns Oscar’s eight room apartment into a paradigm of neatness, Oscar’s anger begins to simmer and then boil over.
A dinner invitation to attractive English sisters Gwendolyn and Cecily Pigeon (Amelia Sargisson and Maggie Walters respectively) who live upstairs offers Oscar a shot at the female companionship he has been missing and Felix a chance to cook a gourmet meal.
If you have never seen The Odd Couple, I will not spoil it any further. Suffice it to say, the evening doesn’t go well but the play just keeps getting funnier.
Simon’s jokes have aged well. Indeed, some Odd Couple lines are so famous to American audiences that I could tell many of the Canadians with whom I watched it were hearing them for the very first time.
No attempt has been made to update any of the details, which is an excellent idea. Lines that simply provided information in 1965 now elicit laughs. $1.50 an hour to have someone clean your flat? $9 and change for a nice piece of meat to feed four people? $240 a month to rent an eight-room New York apartment? Talk about knee slappers!
All of the performances are solid, but the Oscar goes to Hughson as Oscar. If you thought no one could make you forget Walter Matthau, think again. Hughson is positively protean in the role. MacDougall gives support as Felix, but make no mistake, this is Hughson’s show.
Sargisson and Walters are an absolute delight as the “cuckoo Pigeon sisters.” They are just sexy enough to make you envy the lucky man they take under their wings.
Of the poker players, I especially enjoyed Barna and James, both of whom nailed their New Yorker personas.
Director Max Reimer keeps the pace clicking along. He has the poker players redress the set during the scene changes in both acts. At first I thought this was an unfortunate but necessary device since there is no curtain. Instead, Reimer turns necessity to his advantage by giving us a fascinating glimpse into theatrical trickery that along the way produces some of the best laughs in the show.
Designer Doug Paraschuk has done a masterful job of recreating one of those Riverside Drive apartments I could never afford. Alex Amini provides costumes that struck me as perfect for the period and Siobhán Sleath lights it all nicely. As a native New Yorker I am compelled to note that whoever ran props has never seen an actual Manhattan phone book.
The Odd Couple continues at St. Jacobs Country Playhouse though August 30, 2026. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Drayton Entertainment website.
Footnote: It occurred to me that American tourists who come to Canada invariably restrict their theatre going to the Shaw and Stratford Festivals. If they are even aware that a show like The Odd Couple is playing it is extremely unlikely they will make an effort to take it in. That’s too bad.
So I urge my fellow Americans to cast off the blinders and seek out shows at venues beyond the two major festivals. I can’t guarantee that they will all be as rewarding as The Odd Couple, but the odds are in your favour.
[image: Drayton Entertainment]
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