– By Cate Marquis –
“The Cottage” is a Noel Coward-esque comedy that is by far the funniest show the Repertory Theater of St. Louis has staged in years, and a delightful way to open the Rep’s 2025-2026 season. Set in the Roaring 1920s and written by Sandy Rustin and directed by Risa Brainin, “The Cottage” is hilarious, sexy, smart, full of surprises, one of which is a feminist twist. “The Cottage” is sort of bedroom farce meets Agatha Christie, but with an underlying current about self-discovery. All that fast and furious physical comedy and snappy humorous dialog is greatly enhanced by spot-on direction and high-octane performances by a fabulous cast, particularly by Andrea San Miguel as Sylvia.
Sylvia is essentially the lead in this ensemble romp, which is sort of bedroom farce meets Agatha Christie, a clever comedy as filled with twists and surprises as sexy pratfalls and double-entrendres. The comedy opens with Sylvia (Andrea San Miguel) gushing about her lover Beau (Jordan Coughtry) – and the beautiful cottage in the English countryside where they are having a tryst. It is just them in this beautiful rural house, a which is bit on the fancy side for something called a cottage but plenty cozy. But lovebirds Sylvia and Beau aren’t just meeting for a single weekend of passion, because they have been meeting like this once a year for the past seven, because they are both married.
But this year, Sylvia decides she wants more, and takes matters into her own hands to change things.
Without telling Beau, Sylvia has sent a telegram to her husband Clarke (Jack Dryden), telling him she is in love and intends to marry Beau, her true love, and a similar one to Beau’s wife Marjorie (Jihan Haddad).
By doing that, unsuspecting Sylvia opens the door to a host of complications, starting with the fact that her husband Clarke is also Beau’s brother, and that Beau is not too happy with what Sylvia has done. When Clarke and Marjorie arrive, things don’t play out as Sylvia or we expect, and it all gets very complicated – as well as hilariously funny. To say much more would spoil the fun, as the twists and revelations fly.
Chaos, more twists and uproarious fun ensue, but also insights that Sylvia gains on life and herself. Overlooking it all is Clarke’s and Beau’s formidable mother, represented by a portrait hanging by the door to the cottage. Mother is both a friend and an associate of feminist and women’s suffrage firebrand Emily Pankhurst, so she is not a woman to be trifled with and, in fact, the cottage belongs to her.
Mother doesn’t actually turn up in the play, although she does crop up in dialog as a concern from time to time. But others do appear at the cottage, in what seems an endless stream. Soon there is a house full of people, and the jokes, double-entendres, insults, and sly cracks fly through the air, along with the energetic, gymnastic, emotional Sylvia.
Andre San Miguel doesn’t quite fly through the air, although she seems to come close at times, sliding across the floor or bounding onto tables and other furniture. It is an athletically impressive performance but incredibly funny and ultimately moving as well, as Sylvia works through layers of disappointments and plot twists. She is the kind of character that you never know what she will do, and the others had
The craziness of the story is part of the fun but the cast keeps the characters from becoming too cartoonist, so we do feel the dilemmas they each find themselves in. More unpredictability is introduced with a couple of more characters who turn up, Dierdre (a delightful Isa Venere), then Richard (Andres Enriquez), and then a gardener (Sam Matthews) too. But you will just have to go to the play to learn how all those puzzle pieces fit together.
Jordan Coughtry’s Beau, on the other, is very grounded, vain, and equally funny as he ducks away from Sylvia’s exuberance, wondering why things can’t just continue as they have, meeting once a year. Jack Dryden as silly Clarke and Jihan Haddad as haughty Marjorie are hilarious but Isa Venere as is a comedy scene-stealer as young flapper Dierdre, who is always up for party games and seems barely able to keep her clothes on. More twists are added when Andres Enrique’s Richard turns up, and it’s all capped with Sam Matthews’ handsome gardener.
Sylvia is both the instigator of all that unfolds and by turns its victim and benefactor, all of which forces some hard truths on her and some dawning insights. It all wraps up in a feminist twist that fits well with the brothers’ Pankhurst-pal mother.
The dialog is snappy, the characters are a bit out on the edge (with emotional Sylvia farther out by far) and the humor-laced plot and action keeps popping along non-stop. The costumes are gorgeous – colorful and Roaring Twenties perfect, and the large flexible set is both grand and roomy enough for all the fast-paced action.
“The Cottage” is on stage at The Repertory Theater of St. Louis’ in the Mainstage theater at the Loretto Hilton Theater in Webster Groves now through Sept. 28.
© Cate Marquis
Photo by Jon Gitchoff
