Artists Ensemble Theateris presenting the world premiere of “Jeeves at Sea,” a brand new comedy by Margaret Raether based on characters created by English writer P.G. Wodehouse. Raether says she took material from two Wodehouse stories for the play.
“It’s a bit of a mashup between a Reggie Pepper story, “Rally Around George,” and “Jeeves in the Springtime,” she says.
Set on a yacht in the Bay of Monaco, Bertie has to deal with his friend, Crumpet, who’s a fugitive from justice, and Crumpet’s twin, who keeps flirting with a woman Bertie is smitten with. Bertie also has to pretend to be a romance novelist, cope with a duel, AND worry whether Jeeves will leave him for - of all things – a woman.
This is the fourth play that Raether has written based on Wodehouse. It all started a decade ago, in she says, during Artists Ensemble’s early days, when she was looking for something that could run in December.
“And I was having a chat with someone, and he was remarking that he used to go to readings of P.G. Wodehouse at City Lit in Chicago. And I was saying, oh, I love Wodehouse. And then it suddenly occurred to me to sort of idly wonder if any of his works were in public domain,” she says.
Turns out, quite a bit is. Wodehouse lived into the 1970s, but he began writing stories in 1915. So, under U.S. copyright law, there were a number of stories, and a novel, that are fair game for an enterprising playwright like Raether. And thus was born “Jeeves Intervenes.”
It also turns out there was a market for the play, with performances in Chicago and Milwaukee, publication and still more performances around the country. That lead to a demand for more plays, although Raether says she had no idea it would go this far.
“The one novel is called “Right-Ho Jeeves!” and I adapted that into “Jeeves in Bloom.” That was tricky, and kind of painful, because I had to cut out huge swaths of it out in order to put it into a play. And then I thought I was done," she says.
But then her husband, director Richard Raether, suggested she adapt one of the many Jeeves stories set in New York City.
After that, Raether was SURE she was done. Not so fast. Looking at material for the Ensemble’s faux radio show, she found herself reading Wodehouse again. One thing led to another, and “Jeeves at Sea” was born last year on Christmas Day.
Adapting stories from page to stage successfully can be tricky. Writing a new play based on familiar characters perhaps even trickier. So what makes it worthwhile? Raether says, in this case, for her, it’s the language.
“He gave some wonderful writing advice that everyone should take to heart, which is to make every line a delight. He is such a wizard of wordplay. You’d think that everything would be creaky – these stories are 100 years old this year, and they’re fresh and funny,” she says.
Raether says there’s also a frenetic quality in the stories that makes it great fun for the audience, as the characters hurtle forward and dilemmas pile one on top of another.
Language and frantic plotlines aside, Raether says there’s just something appealing about Jeeves. That’s despite the fact that he usually says little and, seemingly, does less.
“I always try to think of him as the eye of a hurricane and everybody swirls faster and faster and faster around him, until he magically dissipates it and everything falls out exactly as he planned all along. Jeeves knows everything about everything, and is master of it all. It’s a fantasy, it’s like a genie. Everybody would like to have a Jeeves in their life,” Raether says.
Raether says the previous plays all continue to do well, and this one is already lined up to do the same.
The Artists Ensemble Theater production of “Jeeves at Sea” runs at Rockford University’s Cheek Theatre through September 27.
For those who need more, there is a Wodehouse Society, and many other websites devoted to P.G. Wodehouse and his writings.
