Above: Orderly Alexander Schottky grabs Elwood (Dr. Jim Halverson) to take him in for examination while his sister Veta (Laurie Walters) looks on.
Below: A frazzled Veta (Laurie Walters) confuses intake doctor Dr. Sanderson (Casey Robbins) when explaining why her brother Elwood must be committed.

photos by Stephen Adams

“Harvey” is Worth the Wait as Comic Relief Reigns
by Sami Zahringer, Ojai Valley News

Here is something to cheer us all up! Delayed two years by the pandemic, Ojai Performing Arts Theater finally delivers “Harvey,” Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy. OPAT’s indefatigable Executive Producer, Joan Kemper, and producer Stuart Crowner, together with co-directors Richard Camp and Craig Anderson, have put together a production worth the wait and with something relevant to say to contemporary audiences in our mad, mad world.

Plain-speaking, good-hearted gentleman Elwood P. Dowd (Dr. James Halverson) is an amiable, wealthy, gin-soaked sot who starts having visions of a giant rabbit named Harvey. Elwood has inherited his mother’s mansion and lives with his dizzy, image-conscious sister Veta (Laurie Walters) and her grasping daughter, Myrtle Mae (Brittany Daniel Schottky). Veta and Myrtle believe Elwood is insane and are socially mortified by his introduction of Harvey to all their friends, especially as Veta is trying to find a respectable husband for Myrtle.  

​At the end of her rope, Veta decides to have Harvey committed to Chumley’s Rest, a nearby sanitarium. The junior Dr. Sanderson (Casey Robbins) encounters the siblings separately, not at first understanding who the patient is. Dissatisfied with seeing a junior doctor, Veta insists on seeing the sanatorium director, Dr. Chumley. She admits to the patrician, no-nonsense Dr. Sanderson that she occasionally sees Harvey herself. The farcical misunderstandings mount, and the comic momentum gathers. To the hubristic Dr. Sanderson, rabbit-seeing Elwood seems supremely unflappable, while rabbit-less Veta is one giant flapping nerve-ending, and Sanderson commits her instead. Meanwhile, Nurse Kelly (the delightfully comic Angélica Smith) finds herself doubting her sanity as the eminently reasonable-seeming Elwood - alongside the invisible Harvey - charms her with his good nature and manners. 

Soon, the wave of confusion crashes in the sanatorium, the truth becomes apparent, and the mortified Sanderson orders Veta’s release. A disheveled Veta is hilariously outraged and apoplectic at her infamous treatment at the hands of Sanderson and the asylum’s altogether sane orderly, Wilson (a manically driven Alexander Schottky). Dr. Chumley (the wonderfully sonorous Mark Capri) tries to mollify Veta while struggling to reconcile his duty to help Elwood with his growing belief in Harvey. 

he comic antics of the supporting cast (including Susan Kelejian as Mrs. Chauvenet and EJ, the taxi driver; Margaret Welsh as Mrs. Chumley; and David Newcomer as Judge Omar Gaffney) are laugh-out-loud entertaining as events pile on top of each other in perplexity and alarm, but at the heart of the play is calm, sweet, unflappable Elwood. James Halverson projects a gentle, winning innocence in the role made famous by James Stewart in the movie version, distinct and refreshing in a cynical, knowing world. 
When certainties start to fall away, will we panic, do each other harm, or do as Elwood does and choose imagination as his savior? In a crazy world, how rational is it to be considered sane anyway?

​Kenny Dahle has created an ingenious inside-out rolling set for smooth scene changes. Costume designer Mary Crane with her team (Kyle Crowner and Michal Gaidano), brings us back to the 1940s in the service of Elwood P, Dowd, the man who understands it is wiser to be kind than clever. 
Performances run this weekend at Matilija Auditorium, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, April 10 at 2 pm. Click Here to purchase tickets. A portion of the proceeds benefit Help of Ojai. Proof of vaccination is required, and masks are optional within the theater.