Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Slightly Scandalous

Director Peter Harrigan had several reasons for fast-forwarding Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School for Scandal from the 18th century to the swingin’ 1960s, but the main motivator is pretty ... packed. He just couldn’t picture 18 St. Michael’s College cast members in period attire squeezing onto the FlynnSpace stage. “Fashions from the ’60s are a little more compact,” he explains — not to mention that the peace-and-love era is a “fun visual period to draw from.” Does time travel affect the message of this comedy of manners, which revolves around rumors and backstabbing and throws in a healthy dose of mistaken identity? Surprisingly, not so much. “Treachery and gossip (unfortunately) never go out of style,” opines Harrigan. And as for the ’60s setting — well, a play first performed in 1777 can’t get more mod than that.