STAGE WEST: "The Maltese Falcon" at North Coast Repertory Theatre

Shelley Regner and Richard Baird in "The Maltese Falcon."                                   Photo by Aaron Rumley

            North Coast Repertory Theatre’s world-premiere production of “The Maltese Falcon” written by Matthew Salazar-Thompson is a parody of the Dashiell Hammett novel and, more so, the 1941 film adaptation that starred Humphrey Bogart as San Francisco shamus Sam Spade. So to understand and appreciate what is being parodied, you’d best know one or the other.
            That doesn’t mean this animated romp directed by Todd Nielsen can’t be enjoyed strictly on the strength of its physical comedy, well-timed sound effects (thank you, Foley artist Liam Sullivan) and lots and lots of similes and metaphors. But because this production runs nearly two and a half hours with intermission (the first act alone is 75 or more minutes’ long) knowing the source material that Salazar-Thompson, Nielsen and the game cast is winking at will make the time in your seat pass more swiftly.
            Personally speaking, I know the John Huston-directed film adaptation of “The Maltese Falcon” very well, and having read the novel I also know that many of Hammett’s cleverest lines were used verbatim in that movie. (There’s also a 1930s film of “The Maltese Falcon” that admittedly I’ve never seen.) Many of those clever lines and hard-boiled aphorisms are in the NC Rep stage show, though this production still felt long to me. A little too much exposition for one thing, even if that very exposition is meta-mocked by the actors delivering it. The 1941 movie never drags and clocks in at an economical and satisfying 100 minutes.
            This stage production stars Richard Baird as Spade, and from the jump he’s having a ball with the role, never taking himself too seriously but also faithfully speaking the grittiest of the detective’s banter as written by Hammett. (Huston wrote the screenplay for the Bogart film.)
            The other actor in the proceedings who plays only one part is Shelley Regner as femme fatale Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Her North Coast Rep debut is a big winner. She’s every bit the dangerous beauty that Mary Astor was opposite Bogie and, like Baird, she’s deft with the play’s parody of and tribute to its source material.
            A busy ensemble of Regina Fernandez, Louis Lotorto and Daniel A. Stevens handles not only the other principal parts in the mystery of the black bird (Spade’s secretary Effie, Miles Archer’s widow Iva, partners in crime Kasper Gutman and Joel Cairo, gunsel Wilmer Cook, et al) but all the stage play, pantomimes and prop manipulations that help tell the story of the dingus that Spade ultimately dubs “the stuff dreams are made of.”
            What’s most successful about this production is the cast and crew’s ingenuity in effecting a romantic and dangerous ‘30s San Francisco by simply moving a few props and partitions around. Physical touches like spray-canning fog, or creating the illusion of a moving cab or cable car, are creative and amusing. Sound design and music composed by Ian Scot give the setting the period atmosphere and noir shadings required. Sound and visual effects are also utilized to get laughs. This is, remember, a comic take on a classic.
            Here and there playwright Salazar-Thompson departs from the Hammett novel and/or Huston screenplay, and that’s as it should be. I’ve endured more than a few stage adaptations of well-known films that basically tried to reproduce them in a different medium … with dubious results.
            A staple on Turner Classic Movies and a treasured gem of film noir, the 1941 “The Maltese Falcon” flick is assured of cultural immortality. To try and duplicate it is folly. To have fun with it while respecting it at the same time, and doing so onstage, is just fine. Case closed.
            “The Maltese Falcon” runs through April 5 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach.