Review: The Cottage

Review: The Cottage  | OpenStage Theatre & Company | Fort Collins, CO | Curtain Up! | Eric Fitzgerald

OpenStage Theatre & Company’s production of The Cottage, written by Sandy Rustin and lovingly directed by Jessica Jackson, brims with comic energy. This lively, precisely crafted romp reflects its 1920s influences with impressive accuracy. It’s a lively, sharply executed tribute to the era, and the company’s mastery of style makes the whole performance feel like a vibrant, humorous relic of the time it celebrates.

The Cottage has had a lively path to the stage, beginning with its 2013 premiere at the Astoria Performing Arts Center before becoming a regional favorite across the country. The play made its Broadway debut in 2023 under the direction of Jason Alexander (Seinfeld), featuring a marquee cast that included Laura Bell Bundy, Eric McCormack, and Lilli Cooper. Its brisk, 112‑performance run at the Helen Hayes Theatre cemented it as a contemporary love letter to the fizzy, farcical style of early‑20th‑century British comedy.

Set in a tucked‑away English cottage in 1923, The Cottage opens on Sylvia (Katy White) and Beau (Jacob Offen) arriving for their annual rendezvous, a tradition they’ve maintained with more enthusiasm than discretion. What begins as their usual illicit retreat quickly starts to wobble, though, as the quiet of the cottage proves no match for the complications waiting just outside the door. Marjorie (Molly McGuire) and Clarke (James Burns) arrive with their own simmering grievances, and before anyone can catch their breath, Richard (Dan Tschirhart) and Deirdre (Lexi Wilson) are pulled into the swirl. What unfolds is a chain reaction of confessions, half‑truths, and romantic delusions, all ricocheting around a space far too small to contain them. It’s a farce of manners where everyone believes they’re the reasonable one—until the cottage itself starts exposing the cracks.

Sandy Rustin’s The Cottage wears its influences with a wink, echoing the crisp architecture and social mischief of Oscar Wilde—The Importance of Being Earnest most of all—without ever lifting directly from it. Rustin, an actor‑turned‑playwright known for her sharp comedic instincts, builds her farce with a contemporary looseness that still honors the elegance of its 1920s setting. She’s drawn to stories where civility frays at the edges, where charm becomes a weapon, and where the truth is always two steps behind the people trying to control it. In The Cottage, that sensibility lands squarely: a modern playwright tipping her hat to a master while crafting a confection entirely her own.

L to R: Katy White, Jacob Offen | Photo credit: Soleil Lean Geddes

Jessica Jackson’s direction leans fully into the play’s comic engine, keeping the momentum bright and buoyant from the moment the door first swings open. She molds the brisk two‑hour evening into a fast‑moving, cotton‑candy swirl—sweet, colorful, and just unstable enough to keep everyone alert to the next surprise. And even as the production revels in its own sparkle, Jackson never loses sight of the script’s quieter currents, letting shifting loyalties and half‑truths slip through the gloss. The result is a staging that thrives on its own velocity while gently reminding us that, in this world, appearances are always a little slippery.

The strength of this production rests squarely with its ensemble, each actor carving out a sharply defined “period” persona that gives the farce its shape. As Sylvia, Katy White plays the consummate 1920s heroine—stylish, restless, and far more calculating than her soft edges suggest. Jacob Offen’s Beau is the kind of man who believes charm is a moral compass; he floats through the cottage with a polished ease that keeps everyone slightly off balance. Molly McGuire gives Marjorie a crisp, high‑society composure, the sort of woman who can hold a teacup and a grudge with equal precision. James Burns’s Clarke is wonderfully frayed at the seams, a man whose sense of propriety is constantly at war with the chaos around him. Lexi Wilson’s Deirdre arrives with a bright, almost disarming directness that cuts through the room like fresh air, and Dan Tschirhart’s Richard brings a grounded authority that quietly shifts the dynamics the moment he steps inside. Together, they operate like a perfectly misaligned clock—each gear spinning at its own speed yet somehow creating a rhythm that makes the entire confection hum.

James Brookman’s scenic design gives the show its first hint: a country cottage that’s polished enough to feel welcoming but arranged just right, as if the walls themselves are bracing for impact. Carla Brookman’s properties and set dressing sharpen that impression with period-appropriate details that feel deliberate and curated, reinforcing the cottage’s polished, almost too-perfect surface. Jasper Day’s costumes enhance the character work, each look revealing who these people believe they are long before they speak. MacKenzie Lowe’s lighting keeps the tone flexible, moving from cozy domesticity to heightened farce with an ease that never draws attention. And Jessica Jackson’s sound design stitches it all together, adding a subtle rhythmic lift that keeps the whole piece spinning. The world they create is charming, precise, and just a little too perfect, the kind of place where chaos can flourish, and does.

Under Jessica Jackson’s sure‑handed direction, The Cottage happily indulges in the script-controlled excess, leaning into its heightened impulses without ever losing its footing. Rustin’s writing has a buoyant, almost giddy quality, and this top‑notch cast meets it with precision and charm, shaping the production that feels crisp, polished, and consistently engaging. It’s absolutely worth the trip to Fort Collins to catch this finely tuned offering from OpenStage Theatre & Company.

For information and tickets: https://openstage.com/show/the-cottage/