For centuries France has produced such famous playwrights as Molière, Beaumarchais, Rostand, Sartre, and Ionesco and such plays as Tartuffe, The Marriage of Figaro, Cyrano de Bergerac, No Exit, and Rhinoceros. And yet, according to the Guinness World Record organization, the most performed French play in the world is a 1960s sex farce about a swinging Parisian bachelor juggling three fiancées. The play is Marc Camoletti’s Boeing Boeing and the Santa Rosa Junior College Theatre Arts program has a production running in Santa Rosa through March 8.
The title refers to the Being 707 aircraft which revolutionized air travel in the late 1950s by cutting travel time for millions of passengers and flight crews. That’s the key plot point of the play as American bad boy Bernard (Jay Soto) counts on the extended travel time for air hostesses (we call them flight attendants these days) to allow him to “schedule” adequate time to be with three women: American Gloria (Shay Rudy), who flies for TWA, Italian Gabriella (Victoria Cunha), who flies for Alitalia, and German Gretchen (Ally Liberty) who flies for Lufthansa. He’s able to do this with the reluctant cooperation of his French maid Berthe (Hannah Fain) and a handy airline timetable.
Complications arise with the arrival of old school chum Robert (Jake McFadden), a Wisconsin innocent who soon wants in on the action. All hell breaks loose when changing schedules and bad weather lead all three women to be back in Paris at the same time and all headed for Bernard’s apartment. Cue the slamming doors.
I like a good farce as much as anyone (and the JC did an excellent job last year with Rumors) but this play has not aged well. The sexism and misogyny of the late 50s, early 60s remains. Only an Austin Powers-like approach might make it a bit more palatable today…