Making fun of people never goes out of style. The 18th-century English playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan looked around him and saw so much foolish behavior that he had no problem coming up with a full roster of characters to populate "The Rivals."
What got laughs more than 200 years ago is still very funny at Centerstage, whose production satirically goes over the top.
It's crucial in this sort of spoof that its targets don't realize just how ridiculous they are. True to her name, Miss Lydia Languish (Zoe Winters) is a prime example. Her head stuffed with romantic notions she has gotten from fashionable novels, Miss Languish lounges around the well-furnished house and dreams about meeting the right suitor. Her flighty personality is accentuated by the very busy and colorful dresses she favors.
The aunt who is more or less looking after this young woman, Mrs. Malaprop (Kristine Nielsen), has an ego as broad as the dresses by costume designer David Burdick, who certainly earned his pay for the many outrageous outfits.
True to her name, Mrs. Malaprop is constantly making pronouncements in which she misuses words. Other characters notice her bungled attempts at flinging an impressive vocabulary, but Mrs. Malaprop remains oblivious to her verbal mistakes. Many of her words are directed at trying to find a suitable husband for her niece.
Set in the ritzy resort town of Bath in 1775, "The Rivals" involves courtships gone hilariously wrong, as genuine romantic ardor and social climbing become hopelessly mixed up. In spoofing the themes and character types that inhabited the theater of his own day, Sheridan instinctively realized that by pushing his many characters into the realm of caricature, he would ensure that the comic complications would pile up fast.
Within Lydia's household, her cousin, Julia Melville (Caroline Hewitt), will account for some of those complications.
Where the male characters are concerned, Captain Jack Absolute (Manu Narayan), is as confident as both his name and the tight-fitting military uniform that he languidly struts around in. Jack's not entirely free to pursue his romantic interests, however, because his tyrannical father, Sir Anthony Absolute (David Margulies), intrusively barges in and barks orders.
Just as Julia adds an extra complicating element on the female side, Jack's friend, Mr. Faulkland (Clifton Duncan), is a nervous young fellow looking for love.
Toss in a country squire who seems like a prototype for the 1960s TV series "Green Acres," Bob Acres (Jimmy Kieffer); an Irish Baronet with amorous designs of his own, Sir. Lucius O'Trigger (Evan Zes); and servants who aren't shy about passing judgment (played by actors including Danny Gavigan and Libya Pugh) and you have more than enough silly romantic material to keep you occupied tabulating all of the bungled courtships that have to be sorted out before things can be settled.
It's apt that Caleb Wertenbaker's rather schematic set design is mostly composed of painted flats whose arabesque patterns are as decoratively dizzying as the story that unfolds. Director David Schweizer keeps the action moving at a pretty fast clip, and his quick tempo also describes performances in which preening characters strike poses that can't be held very long when so much is going on around them.
Although Evan Zes and a few of the other actors often seem even more cartoonish than what is called for in an admittedly broad comedy, their exertions ultimately pay off in a classic English comedy that still plays well in this former colony.
"The Rivals" runs through Oct. 30 at Centerstage, at 700 N. Calvert St. in Baltimore. Tickets are $10- $55. Call 410-332-0033 or go to http://www.centerstage.org/rivals.