In the best kind of Christmas story (if there is such a thing), the holiday is a cultural backdrop for personal romance and struggle. Soulpepper‘s revival of their 2010 Dora Award-winning Parfumerie is full of sweetness without being treacly, and wrought with those minor agonies that make a person sheepishly grateful for all things not inducing psychic pain. Written in 1937 by Mikls Lszl and stylishly adapted by playwright Adam Pettle (Zadie’s Shoes) and Brenda Robins, the original Parfumerie inspired several movies, like Jimmy Stewart’s Shop Around the Corner, or more recently You’ve Got Mail, the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks vehicle that updated the epistolary romance for our electronic age. Set in a small Hungarian perfume shop, (kind of like a 1930s-style Sephora) Parfumerie aims high while keeping its intentions on a modestly human level; Pettle and Robins’ adaptation updates the tone, but also preserves its glowing nostalgia. This is fortified by Ken MacDonald’s strawberry sundae of a set, perhaps the most welcoming stage design I’ve seen all year. A functional set is a rarity, and MacDonald’s is as fully equipped as they come: revolving door, shelves stocked with perfumes, soaps, and powders, and counter-tops fitted with spinning rolls of wrapping paper and spools of ribbon. It’s a joy to watch the ensemble stride through the shop with a physical purpose in mind, and Morris Panych‘s kinetic direction keeps both bodies and words awhirl. Everyone gets stressed around Christmastime, yes? And Mr. Hammerschmidt (Joseph Ziegler), proprietor of the Hammerschmidt Parfumerie is no exception. One busy evening, after abusing his hard-working but skittish employee George (a brilliant Oliver Dennis) to the point of indignity, Mr. Hammerschmidt angrily accuses him of disloyalty. Scandalized and offended, George gives his notice. It’s a poor beginning to what seemed to be a sweet confectionary tale. As it turns out, Hammerschmidt’s ill temper is thanks to his wife’s infidelity with–he has discovered–one of his employees. George’s sudden unemployment coincides with an event that’s been brewing for a year and a half: the meeting of his pen pal–a woman, known to him only as Friend–with whom he is in rapturous love. “Like Heloise and Abelard,” he tells Mr. Sipos, a kindly older clerk (Michael Simpson). George blames his departure on Rosie (Patricia Fagan), an equally high-strung clerk who (George feels) has sabotaged his reputation with the boss and who also, incidentally, has an imminent meeting with an unknown pen friend. The two plots are equally involving, but in carefully distinguished ways. Hammerschmidt might have power, money, and a 35-year-marriage, but his story is pointedly less whimsical than George and Rosie’s. And while Ziegler’s performance is a study in quiet defeat, he still pulls out some of the most sparkling comedic moments within the play; a scene with eager apprentice Arpad (Jeff Lillico) over a rain-soaked breakfast effortlessly rends the heart. Neither George nor Rosie has a civil word to spare for the other, but Pettle and Robins have written their characters in such sympathetic terms that their (SPOILER!!!) hard-earned reconciliation delivers genuine poignancy. Downplaying all that adorability, George and Rosie’s relationship is inverted in the characters of Stephan (Kevin Bundy)–a pencil-mustachioed clerk and wannabe gigolo who leaches money from Rosie–and Miss Ratz (played with Marilyn breathiness by Maev Beatty), a flirtatious bubblehead unwisely investing her attentions in the feckless Stephan. Mike Ross and Miranda Mulholland provide musical accompaniment on accordion and violin, meandering through the shop at key moments to underscore a particularly romantic (or unromantic) turn of events. Through it all, the hazy street vista seen through the bay windows of MacDonald’s beautiful set lets the characters run through snow and rain, offering shelter in the fragrant warmth of the Hammerschidt Parfumerie. You might want to do the same. PARFUMERIE by Mikls Lszl; adapted by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins; directed by Morris Panych; set design by Ken MacDonald; costume design by Dana Osborne; lighting design by Bonnie Beecher; musical direction and composition by Mike Ross; sound design by John Lott; fight direction by John Stead; production stage management by Arwen MacDonell; presented by Soulpepper Theatre Company. At the Young Centre for the Performing arts (55 Mill St). Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes. Tickets and info: soulpepper.ca; 416.866.8666.
