Screwball Comedy

I have called Harvey a screwball comedy, which may push the definition of the genre just a little. For one thing, Harvey comes a little late in the history of the great examples of the genre. It Happened One Night ushered in the best of them, and they hit their zenith at the end of the 30s. Harvey is very much a post-war story. I'll delve into that in greater detail some other time, I promise you.

Also, most screwball comedies are associated with sexual banter. Indeed, His Girl Friday (probably my favorite) and The Lady Eve were sex comedies without the sex. Harvey may be a rabbit, but he seems to be a neutered one!

Still, several indelible elements of all great screwball comedies are evident in Harvey. You can't be a fan of these films without noticing that they always feature the triumph of the average person over the snobs. At no time was class warfare fought more valiantly on the silver screen than in these stories. Common folk always had more sense than the wealthy, it seems; although there was always a chance that the well off could redeem themselves once the smarty pants saw the errors of their ways. Good guys finished first.

 They usually involved absurd situations, too. Harvey is an invisible rabbit, but a very real leopard living with Katharine Hepburn is the key to much of Bringing Up Baby's humor. Rabbits are safer. As far as I know, there has never been a stage adaptation of Bringing Up Baby. Let's put it this way - I ain't directing it!


Finally, there is the banter. Dialogue cracked like a bullwhip in the center ring. If the drawing room was the battleground, wit was used for bullets. I assure you that my actors will snap their lines across the stage! Combine all of these elements with some slapstick and lines won't be the only thing snapping during a good production of Harvey. People can hurt themselves from laughing.  Still, it's safer than a leopard.

Get ready.