Peter Goërs/Holden Street Theatres. 21 Nov 2025
Mary Chase’s Harvey is better known for the 1950s film adaptation of the play starring James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd.
It’s fondly remembered for its impeccable comedy involving a delightfully genteel gentleman and invisible best friend Harvey, a six-foot rabbit with whom he travels the bars of New York making friends everywhere.
This greatly displeases his sister and niece with whom he resides, given his reputation may harm his niece’s marriage prospects, not to mention the struggle of coping with an invisible guest for whom a place at table must always be set.
His sister decides, in agreement with her daughter, that shipping Elwood off to a Sanitarium for the insane, then having power of attorney to sell the house Elwood actually owns, will solve everything,
No. It does not play out that way.
Elwood (Peter Goërs) outsmarts everyone. He drifts in and out of snares, accompanied by Harvey, happily dispensing compliments and kindness wherever he goes. Instead, it’s his sister Veta (Rebecca Kemp) committed to the Sanitarium by mistake. After his escape, his niece, Myrtle May’s (Dora Stamos) putting the house on the market comes unstuck. Sanitarium head psychiatrist Doctor Chumley (Ron Hoenig) has everything he knows professionally, completely challenged, alongside his new assistant, Doctor Sanderson (Christopher Cordeaux.)
Harvey is a comedy of errors as much it is a sweet reflection on what really matters in life, being oneself, making the best of relations with others.
Director Rosie Aust’s production goes for a performance stye close to the era of the play’s origins. Working to highlight absurdities and physical comedy eliciting a happy go lucky popcorn feel to the production.
This partly works, but overall has a cookie cutter feel to it, limiting what the ensemble can bring to their characters. They work at it though.
Most successful at getting beyond this constraint is Goërs, whose Elwood P. Dowd is a delightful creation. Perfectly paced, wonderfully clever and completely wise and heart warming. His counterpart. Rebecca Kemp as sister Veta Louise Simmons, is a rich, completely earthy being at whom one can laugh and yet sympathise with simultaneously.
Dora Stamos as her daughter Myrtle May gives an outstanding, carefully measured comic performance you just have to love. Leighton Vogt goes for it as Sanatarium guard Wilson, the only silly hard arse in the show.
There are actors whose work suits that in context, namely Amanda James’ fabulous Mrs Chumley, Antoinette Cirocco’s perfect, romantic sweetheart Nurse Kelly and Christopher Cordeaux’s know-it-all, smart-arse Doctor Sanderson, along with Brian Wellington’s Judge Omar.
Overall, this is a satisfying production. However, allowing the cast greater freedom to find immediacy in their work, rather than over focusing on style might increase its pace and add gumption to the comedy given the length of the work.
David O’Brien
When: 4 to 22 Nov
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: Closed
Harvey
Peter Goërs/Holden Street Theatres. 21 Nov 2025
Mary Chase’s Harvey is better known for the 1950s film adaptation of the play starring James Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd.
It’s fondly remembered for its impeccable comedy involving a delightfully genteel gentleman and invisible best friend Harvey, a six-foot rabbit with whom he travels the bars of New York making friends everywhere.
This greatly displeases his sister and niece with whom he resides, given his reputation may harm his niece’s marriage prospects, not to mention the struggle of coping with an invisible guest for whom a place at table must always be set.
His sister decides, in agreement with her daughter, that shipping Elwood off to a Sanitarium for the insane, then having power of attorney to sell the house Elwood actually owns, will solve everything,
No. It does not play out that way.
Elwood (Peter Goërs) outsmarts everyone. He drifts in and out of snares, accompanied by Harvey, happily dispensing compliments and kindness wherever he goes. Instead, it’s his sister Veta (Rebecca Kemp) committed to the Sanitarium by mistake. After his escape, his niece, Myrtle May’s (Dora Stamos) putting the house on the market comes unstuck. Sanitarium head psychiatrist Doctor Chumley (Ron Hoenig) has everything he knows professionally, completely challenged, alongside his new assistant, Doctor Sanderson (Christopher Cordeaux.)
Harvey is a comedy of errors as much it is a sweet reflection on what really matters in life, being oneself, making the best of relations with others.
Director Rosie Aust’s production goes for a performance stye close to the era of the play’s origins. Working to highlight absurdities and physical comedy eliciting a happy go lucky popcorn feel to the production.
This partly works, but overall has a cookie cutter feel to it, limiting what the ensemble can bring to their characters. They work at it though.
Most successful at getting beyond this constraint is Goërs, whose Elwood P. Dowd is a delightful creation. Perfectly paced, wonderfully clever and completely wise and heart warming. His counterpart. Rebecca Kemp as sister Veta Louise Simmons, is a rich, completely earthy being at whom one can laugh and yet sympathise with simultaneously.
Dora Stamos as her daughter Myrtle May gives an outstanding, carefully measured comic performance you just have to love. Leighton Vogt goes for it as Sanatarium guard Wilson, the only silly hard arse in the show.
There are actors whose work suits that in context, namely Amanda James’ fabulous Mrs Chumley, Antoinette Cirocco’s perfect, romantic sweetheart Nurse Kelly and Christopher Cordeaux’s know-it-all, smart-arse Doctor Sanderson, along with Brian Wellington’s Judge Omar.
Overall, this is a satisfying production. However, allowing the cast greater freedom to find immediacy in their work, rather than over focusing on style might increase its pace and add gumption to the comedy given the length of the work.
David O’Brien
When: 4 to 22 Nov
Where: Holden Street Theatres
Bookings: Closed
