THE RIVALS is like an extended television sitcom set back in the late eighteenth century. It has the same seemingly unresolvable confusion of events and the same stereotyped characters, who only remain unique here through the saving grace of Sheridan's lines. Richard Brinsley Sheridan wrote the play in 1775 but with a little rewriting and an update on the cursing ('Zounds' and Odds whips and wheels' just wouldn't make it any more) the play could easily run on Broadway as a slow-paced Neil Simon comedy. Director Norman Ayrton has already begun the rewrite in a minor way. Originally, The Rivals was set in Bath, England; here Ayrton uses Boston in the early 1760s to create a mood of recognition.

This local color is supposed to be in anticipation of the bicentennial next year but its real purpose is to forego the English accents. By switching the situation to Boston perhaps Ayrton hoped to hold the audience's attention in an otherwise long, drawn out farce.

The play works on a certain amount of cleverness and a great deal of coincidence, but most of all, it works on the audience's patience. Sheridan milks his characters for everything they're worth, which isn't more than a few idiosyncrasies. And the plot's chaotic entanglements are as predictable as the first few tricky moves of a cat's cradle. The rivals, Bob Acres and Sir Lucius O'Trigger, vie for the hand of lovely Lydia Languish, who remains cloistered under the guardianship of her old-maid aunt, Mrs. Malaprop. Disguised as Ensign Beverly, Captain Absolute has already secretly won Lydia's favor, but when his father, Anthony Absolute arranges his marriage to Lydia using his real title, Lydia rebuffs him.

"With her select words so ingeniously misapplied without being mispronounced," Maggie Brenner enriches the absurdity of Mrs. Malaprop's character and language through controlled inflection and frenzied movements. Playing opposite Brenner, Mark Mosca is grotesquely amusing as Anthony Absolute. Buttressed by strong stage presence, he limps around, bursts into fits of rage and screws up his face like David Fry. The character of Captain Absolute is cold and obnoxious, and Richard Bangs's performance does not add any warmth to the part. Bangs often seems to be just reading his lines. Sir Lucius O'Trigger is a stock Irish figure, and while Richard Carey handles the brogue well, he's just too sanguine for any man--regardless of nationality. Bob Acres is another stereotype, the country bumpkin. Bernard Holmberg is at first intriguing in this role, but as the night wears on, his loud cartoon-like performance highlighted by his porky-pig laugh wears off.

On their first entrance many of the characters in The Rivals are interesting, but Sheridan just cannot sustain that interest for two hours. He tried by adding a secondary romance between Faulkland (Andrew Brooks) and Lydia's cousin, Julia (Maeve Kinkead). Brooks is especially good in his portrayal of the contrite and contrary Faulkland, running first hot, then tepid, then cold, then hot again.

Given the limiting circumstances, the Loeb production of The Rivals is unusually good--it may go slowly for a few moments, but it will provide an evening of light entertainment. If Sheridan didn't have a terribly good sense of pace, he did have a sense of humor, and The Harvard Dramatic Club will make certain in these hard times that you don't forget how to laugh.