Theatre in Review: Travels With My Aunt (Keen Company/Theatre Row)For an exotic excursion laced with humor and menace, you could do far, far worse than Travels With My Aunt. Giles Havergal's adaptation of Graham Greene's best-selling novel, published in 1969. It's the story of Henry Pulling, a bank manager, who, having taken early retirement, lives in suburban solitude, quietly tending his dahlias. At his mother's funeral he is reunited with his long-lost Aunt Augusta, a wildly eccentric creature who comes trailing clouds of intrigue and scandal. (Rather inappropriately, given the occasion, she drops the bombshell that Henry's real mother was another woman altogether; Augusta keeps insisting that Henry's father was a tiger with the ladies, an assertion that hardly matches his own recollections of the man.) Before long, they are engaged in a series of travels that prove increasingly bizarre and dangerous. First is a side trip to Brighton, in which they have a disconcerting encounter with an wizened, elderly psychic. Then they're off on the Orient Express for an abortive visit to Istanbul, and, later, Henry must make his way to Paraguay when Aunt Augusta begins sending distress signals through the mail. The object of these trips, most of which involve near-miss encounters with sinister representatives of the law, is Mr. Visconti, Augusta's once and perhaps future lover. He hardly seems to deserve the veneration she lavishes on him since he is less than prepossessing and a former Nazi collaborator. (The play preserves the book's wildest episode, in which Mr. Visconti, desperate to escape from Rome as the Allies arrive, hops a ride, disguised as a priest, with the wife of a Nazi commandant, hearing her confession as they beat a hasty retreat.) He also keeps involving Augusta, and Henry, in his schemes, most of which involve smuggling. The more Henry gets entangled with Augusta and her entourage, the closer he comes to learning the secret of his maternity. Mr. Visconti is only one of a grotesque gallery of characters who populate Travels With My Aunt. They include Wordsworth, Augusta's sometime lover, a native of Sierra Leone; Tooley, the genial flower child who is chasing her lover -- and the father of her unborn child -- across Europe, and who introduces Henry to the pleasures of marijuana; Tooley's father, a roving CIA agent with an eye on Mr. Visconti; a cadre of corrupt politicians and police officers; and Miss Keene, a spinster, who pens a series of increasingly desperate letters to Henry from her new home in South Africa, each one insinuating that her hand in marriage can be had for the asking. Considered something of a rara avis at the time of its publication, Travels With My Aunt is really very much of a piece with the rest of Greene's oeuvre, with its criminal doings in far-flung locations and a protagonist who is saved from a killing conformity when he passes "the border into my aunt's world," where morality is infinitely fungible and the pursuit of passion the main reason for living. Havergal neatly theatricalizes Greene's tale, having it delivered by four male actors, each of them dressed by costume designer Jennifer Paar in Henry's everyday work uniform of pinstripe suits and bowler hats. The bulk of the character work falls to three of them. Thomas Jay Ryan once again displays his considerable powers while shuffling between the roles of Henry and Augusta. He has a field day with the latter's allusive, elusive style, making such comments as "Wordsworth attends to my wants" and "Your father had spells of activity," which practically vibrate with unspoken meanings. He also gives a surprising authority, especially under duress, making a convincing case that she possesses a superior grasp of human nature. An appearance by Ryan is never to be missed and once again he does not disappoint. Also, Jay Russell makes a strong impression as the dizzy, pleasure-seeking Tooley and her evasive, oddly disconcerting father, and he brings a strong note of pathos to Miss Keene, who quietly dreams of being rescued by Henry. Dan Jenkins finds a sort of philosophical charm in Mr. Visconti, who causes so much trouble for everyone else; he also amuses as a no-nonsense London detective. It falls to Rory Kulz, who made a fine impression earlier in the season in The Old Masters at the Flea Theater, to announce each scene and take on all the minor roles, although he has a neat bite of mime near the end in which he plays a number of guests at the story's climatic celebration. Jonathan Silverstein's direction gets the best out of all four performers. Silverstein also gets fine contributions from his designers. Steven C. Kemp's stylish set design places a half-size wall depicting a London streetscape against an enormous, dimensional sky drop, which comes to contain a number of key props, including a little Eiffel Tower, a clock, and a set of dahlias. The half-wall eventually turns around to reveal a shocking pink Paraguayan town house. Josh Bradford's lighting seamlessly reframes the stage as the narrative moves from place to place. Bart Fasbender's extensive and expertly rendered sound design ranges from the '60s hit "Always Something There to Remind Me" to ambient pub sounds, the pouring of tea, train whistles, and birdsong, to name a few. Travels With My Aunt at times seems as eccentric as Aunt Augusta, but it can easily be enjoyed for the dry-sherry wit of Greene's narrative voice, its continually surprising narrative, and its expert cast of character actors, all of whom seem to be having a ball. All told, it is one of the more civilized pleasures on offer in New York at the moment. -- David Barbour 
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