‘Buttercup’ a wild, wacky ride at Marin Shakes

Theater review: ‘Buttercup’ a wild, wacky ride at Marin Shakes

Barry WillisApril 7, 2025 at 4:06 PM PDT

A working-class young woman searches for her stolen infant daughter and takes some upper-crust French people for a ridiculous ride in “Buttercup,” running through Sunday at Marin Shakespeare Company’s indoor theater in San Rafael.

The comedy is a whimsical adaptation by J.D. Murphy of Guy de Maupassant’s 1880 short story “Boule de Suif” (“Butterball”) from his collection of tales about the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. A seemingly inconsequential short conflict, and only one of an interminable series of stupidly internecine wars, it was an important event, establishing the structure of modern Europe, and a precursor to World War I and World War II. The original story has been adapted into many stage plays, films, operas and other forms of entertainment.

International and historical consequences are of no concern in Marin Shakes’ capacious, steeply raked performance space, where we are greeted by a nun named Sister Walter (Lizzie Calogero), who lectures the audience as a classroom full of students. We then meet Buttercup (Gianna DiGregorio Rivera), who’s recently given birth to a girl named Regine. The baby is whisked away by a nun who won’t reveal her location. Buttercup and Regine’s father, a coachman named Albert (Titus VanHook), vow to find the girl, whatever it takes. That’s setup No.1.

Setup No. 2 is that this region of France is overrun with plundering Prussians, intent on claiming everything they can grab. Albert and his carriage are hired to transport four French mercantile-class refugees through Normandy, where they hope to cross the English Channel to safety. One of them, Valentin (Richard Pallaziol), has bribed a Prussian general for papers guaranteeing safe passage — “gold, the universal language.” The ploy may or may not prove useful.

Valentin, his friend Henri (Brian Lohmann) and their haughty wives Cecile (Sarah Mitchell) and Marjorie (Rebecca Pingree) are soon onboard an imaginary coach with Buttercup and a nun (Calogero) for a long, bumpy ride where they encounter rabbits, wolves, bandits, ruts and fallen trees that impede their progress. The coachman and his passengers bounce along quite convincingly, their matching movements, on an almost-empty set, adding enormously to the illusion of old-world travel.

Brennan Pickman-Thoon is excellent as Maximillien, a Prussian officer who delays their progress for arbitrary reasons. Choreographer Bridgette Loriaux has coached the performers into perfect synchronization, aided by superb effects by sound designer Ray Archie. It’s amazing how action can appear real in pantomime if done expertly, and aided by great sound reinforcement.

In motion or stationary, the four “first-class” passengers twitter the entire time in ornate dismissive language about their traveling companions. (Theatergoers who enjoy this sort of thing may like the 1996 French film “Ridicule” with Fanny Ardant as queen-bee gatekeeper to the royal court.) Murphy has done an excellent job of capturing their patois and self-indulgent attitudes. Class distinctions run rampant throughout the 75-minute production, which pokes enormous fun at bourgeois pretenses, religious convictions and military traditions — including the use of child soldiers.

Subplots include Buttercup’s obsession with Joan of Arc, the female soldier who was burned at the stake for heresy five centuries earlier, and the gentlemanly demeanor of Jean-Jacques (Norman Gee), a Senegalese immigrant innkeeper who’s become a scholar of all things French. Gee brings great dignity to this minor but important role, one that alludes to the plight of immigrants today.

A surprising number of French natives were in attendance at opening weekend’s Sunday afternoonmatinee. A couple of them commented post-show that Murphy’s satirical adaptation was the opposite of de Maupassant’s original, which one described as “bitter and unhappy.”

This guest appearance by the Intercontinental Drift ensemble is anything but bitter — part old-school formal performance (what Lohmann called “park and bark” acting), part slamming-door farce and lots of commedia dell’arte exaggerated silliness. Director Nancy Carlin does it all marvelously — “Buttercup” is what our French friends might describe as “très amusant,” a delightful bagatelle.

Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com.

If you go

What: “Buttercup”

Where: Marin Shakespeare Company, 514 Fourth St., San Rafael

When: Through Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; 2 p.m. this weekend

Admission: $22.24 to $37.99

Information:marinshakespeare.org/tickets

Rating (out of five stars):★★★ 1/2 Stars