Harvey
at Wakefield School

Reviewed on May 2, 2015

Jessica Farhan
Oakton High School
Submitted for publication to Washington Post - Fauquier

It's not often that one sees a 6 and a half-foot tall, white rabbit, yet Elwood P. Dowd happens to have an unconventional friendship with one named Harvey. This "pooka," a shape shifting creature from Irish folklore, has the ability to predict the future and to stop time. Unfortunately, Elwood is the only one that can see him.

Mary Chase's Pulitzer-Prize winning play, Harvey, tells Dowd's unconventional and comedic journey of living with his sister, Veta, and Harvey, an imaginary pooka, much to his sister's chagrin. The play was originally written after World War II in an attempt to raise the spirits of a mother grieving for the loss of her child, a serviceman in the war. Chase managed to bring a smile to the mourning mother, as well as generations of theater-goers with her award-winning play, which later spawned a movie in 1950.

The real standout of Wakefield School's production of Harvey was Josh Mohney, who played Elwood P. Dowd. Mohney channeled his inner Jimmy Stewart in order to precisely emulate Dowd's defining charisma and charm. Although Wakefield School performed in a small section of their gymnasium, Mohney commanded the stage and made excellent use of the limited amount of space, enchanting the audience in the enigmatic mind of Elwood P. Dowd. Mohney's immaculate comedic timing and deep chemistry with both the script and the cast truly brought Harvey to life.

Another notable member of the cast of Harvey was Byron Bushara as Dr. Chumley. As soon as Bushara entered a scene, the audience was prepared to laugh. Bushara's impeccable comedic timing helped the pacing of some of the slower scenes in the play by adding lighthearted comedy that kept the audience engaged. Veta Simmons, played by Julia Leggette, had an awkward charm that drew the audience into the inner workings of her relationship with her brother, Elwood. While almost all of the actors seemed to make eye contact with the audience at one point or another, their superb acting more than made up for it.

The set was simple and elegant. On one side, there was the classy sitting room that Veta and Elwood made use of on multiple occasions. It featured a lovely portrait of Veta's mother and a bouquet of flowers that seemed to resemble a rabbit's head. However, in the second act, the portrait is replaced by a painting of Elwood and a large white rabbit, contributing to Veta's frustration with her brother. On the reverse side of the stage was the stark design of the sanitarium that reflected exactly what a psychiatric office should be like. Although the blackouts were a bit long and the technical crew seemed to have a few problems moving the set at some points, it didn't harm the overall flow of the play, and allowed some of the heavier moments to sit with audience during scene changes.

With miniscule problems here and there, Wakefield School managed to bring the invisible 6 and a half-foot tall rabbit to life, even bringing the imaginary friend out for curtain call. While Mary Chase intended for the play to cheer up a military mother, Wakefield School's production captivated the audience with Harvey's unique and infectious humor, with subtle, deeper meanings, enchanting the audience with the beautifully strange work of Harvey.

Samantha Morley
Washington Lee High School
Submitted for publication to Washington Post - Fauquier

Hop on over to enjoy Wakefield School's production of Harvey!

Harvey was written after World War II to cheer up a widow who had lost her son to the war. This comedy has cheered up many since and will continue to make viewers laugh through performances such as this one.

Throughout the show, the polite and blissfully content Elwood P. Dowd, played by Josh Mohney, carried on chatting about his invisible best friend, Harvey, and attempted to introduce this Pooka to anyone and everyone he met, much to the embarrassment of his sister and niece. Because Elwood's sister, Veta, played by Julia Leggette, wanted to sell the house Elwood inherited from their mother, Veta decided to put Elwood in the sanatorium. The show is then turns into a wild goose chase that begs the question, who is really crazy?

Two ears up for Mohney's charming and sincere portrayal of Elwood! His ability to form friendly relationships with the other characters made him loveable and believable to the audience. His conversations with Harvey, the Pooka, were excellently executed with his steady eye contact with what appeared to be invisible to everyone else in the room. He was able to address Elwood's drinking problem with his dreamy disposition and tasteful delivery of jokes on the matter. While no one was cast as Harvey, the cast and crew did a wonderful job of convincing the audience that he was, in fact, present.

Dr. Chumley, hilariously acted by the British Byron Bushara, pulled the audience in with his booming presence and energy. His belly was comically over-stuffed, earning him laughs at his very entrance. Bushara displayed an exceptional dynamic, which was particularly present in the scene where he yelled at Nurse Kelly, acted by Lee Perritt, and Dr. Sanderson, acted by Alexander Mischel, but then returned sweetly to his wife, Mrs. Betty Chumley, acted by Caitlin Wagner. Bushara was also commendably able to create convincing relationships with the other characters. Though some of the humor in the show was a little overly contrived, their use of proper execution yielded many laughs from the audience. The display of romance between Myrtle Mae, acted by Hastings Williamson, and Wilson, acted by Pieter Bonin, strategically left much to the imagination and captivated the audience.

Though the close proximity of the actors to the set created an intimate atmosphere, which, though it distracted a couple of the actors and ebbed some of the energy, spectacularly permitted the audience to feel as though they were genuinely in the story itself, and allowed the actors to be heard easily and naturally. The lighting also helped with the intimate atmosphere, as warm colors were used in the house to make it homey. The movement of doors added to the comic flurry of the show, and brought Harvey to life, as doors were invisibly opened.

You would be mad as a March hare not to come see Wakefield's harried Harvey!

Jacob Curran
Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School
Submitted for publication to Fauquier Times

Although Wakefield Schools's performance of Harvey had its technical hiccups, it was altogether an encapsulating show that truly brought the audience into Harvey's world.

The play centers around an Elwood P. Dowd and his sister Veta Louise Simmons, portrayed marvelously by Josh Mohney and Julia Leggette. It seems to everyone that Elwood has gone mad as he is constantly introducing a giant, invisible rabbit named Harvey to everyone he meets. Veta and her daughter Myrtle, who live with Elwood and, presumably, his imaginary friend, are at their wits end. In the scene where the audience meets the trio, the stage made this squeaking sound that really detracted from the dialogue, but whatever the issue was, it was subsided by the second scene.

Elwood's constant and unremitting acknowledgement of the rabbit has left the girls without any respectable friends or a social life. Conversely, Elwood makes friends with everyone he meets. His demeanour is calm, his mode of operation is friendliness, and his manners are impeccable. Mohney really captured these aspects of Elwood on the stage. The audience could even see the effects it had on the other actors, when his presence visibly took the hostility out of every scene. I genuinely believed that the character was friendly for all the right reasons. On the other hand, Veta is boundlessly neurotic and her manners stem from a repressive inability to connect with other people. Notwithstanding, his sister and niece are set on committing him to a mental hospital for life.

The plot thickens as, after they commit Elwood, the doctors think Veta committed him due to her neurosis and that he is the neurotypical one. Subsequently, Veta is forcefully committed and Elwood is released. After some discussion, they realize they released the ‘insane' person and committed the ‘sane' person. The story follows Doctor Chumley, Doctor Sanderson, and Nurse Kelly as they all make a frantic rush to find Elwood, who has already left the premises.

This mass conglomeration of comedic ironies all contribute to the question presented by the play, "Who is really sane?"

Jessica Ash
George Mason High School
Submitted for publication to Middleburg Eccentric LLC.

Wakefield School brought life back to a 6 and a half foot tall rabbit in this weekend's production of Mary Chase's Harvey. Originally written as a comedy to make a depressed woman on the street smile, Harvey premiered on Broadway in 1944 and closed 5 years later after 1,775 performances.

In the play, a man by the name of Elwood P. Dowd can see a giant rabbit named Harvey. The issue is, only he can see him. The show is a series of errors as Veta Simmon endeavors to admit Elwood to an insane asylum, but inadvertently gets herself admitted. The story has a deeper meaning, questioning each person's knowledge of sanity and insanity.

With a warm and dopey demeanor, Josh Mohney created the very lovable character of Elwood P. Dowd. Julia Leggette brought lots of energy to her role as Veta Simmons, Elwood's sister. The head of the insane asylum, Dr. Chumley, was comically played by Byron Bushara. Chumley had wonderfully timed comic bits that brought humor and quickened the pace. Through the presumably tense relationship between Nurse Kelly (Lee Perritt) and Dr. Sanderson ( Alexander Mischel) the two actors did an admirable job staying in character. The moment Elwood entered the stage, people seemed to "catch" his warm demeanor and everyone become much softer. The commitment of Josh Mohney seeing this giant rabbit carried this production.

The costumes were very well made and appeared to fit each actor very appropriately. They were also very well selected to fit the period. Overall, the actors looked appropriate for their roles. The ingenious set design also allowed for fairly quick and seamless scene transitions. A small detail that was greatly appreciated was the vase in Elwood's library which contained flowers that appeared to be similarly shaped to rabbit ears.

Harvey is a challenging production for a high school to undertake, but Wakefield gave an admirable effort and created a heart-warming show which was well received by the audience.