Soulpepper’s 17th season broke out last week with Robert E. Sherwood’s 1936 Pulitzer Prize winning Idiot’s Delight. While we look back this year with 20/20 vision on a war that broke out 75 years ago, this play drops us in the middle of tension-filled Europe, in a hotel cocktail lounge filled with people of different nationalities and social backgrounds arguing whether a second World War is about to begin. To ease tensions, American impresario Harry Van and his chorus girls sing and dance as bombers fly above.

Many elements of the show do delight, including beautifully arranged songs like "Pennies From Heaven," and "(Who knows) Where or When," but the thoughtful anti-war script was not written by or for idiots. Sherwood, a WW1 vet wounded in a gas attack, became a pacifist, until Hitler’s aggression compelled him to become a speech-writer for President Roosevelt. If you aren’t familiar with the global political environment of 1936, you’ll need to pay close attention to the characters’ attitudes and dialogue. You don’t have to brush up on the history to enjoy the show, but if you do, your appreciation will go deeper. It is directed by Albert Schultz, founding member and Artistic Director of Soulpepper, who told me in an interview last month that over the next few seasons he wants to explore the societal impact the two world wars continue to have.

Written in 1936, the year of the Berlin Olympics and two years before Hitler was named Time’s Man of the Year, Idiot’s Delight speculates on how the looming war might begin, starting “with a little crack in the ice.” Sherwood and most of his characters seem to agree that, no matter who starts it, “they will all lose.” The story is set in the cocktail lounge of a resort hotel in the Italian Alps where four countries converge (Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria), with characters representing numerous national, political, and social backgrounds eagerly awaiting authorization to board a train to Switzerland.

The principal characters are American impresario Harry Van (Dan Chameroy), who is trying to get his chorus girls to Geneva, and alleged Russian aristocrat Irene (Raquel Duffy), but other crucial roles include Captain Locicero (Paolo Santalucia), a German medical scientist (William Webster), British honeymooners (Mikaela Davies and Gordon Hecht), French-born Marxist pig farmer Quillery (Gregory Prest) who says he has no nationality, arms dealer Achille Weber (Diego Matamoros), and affable hotel waiter Dumpsty (Evan Buliung). 

The anxious uncertainty of the time is expressed when the ethical but obedient Italian captain, explaining the aeroplanes above, says, “We must be prepared […] for the enemy.” The German doctor, calling himself a servant of all humanity, responds, “Enemy, eh? And who is that?” The captain admits, “I don’t quite know yet. The map of Europe supplies us with a wide choice of opponents. I suppose, in due time, our government will announce its selection—and we shall know just whom we are to shoot at.”

With so many characters and accents, dialect coach Diane Pitblado had her work cut out for her, as did (more literally) set and costume designer Lorenzo Savoini. The set never changes: chairs, tables, piano and drums in the cocktail lounge, and a staircase curving up to a balcony. Period costumes for the stage-crowding cast feature Italian military uniforms, shimmering outfits for the chorus girls, and glamorous gowns for Irene. It is a vibrant and peopled production. Music (Mike Ross, musical director) and sound (John Gzowski) are central to the ambiance of the production.

The expression “idiot’s delight” refers not only to solitaire, but also to an easily made cake of the Civil War era. Like that cake, this show has ingredients that go together delightfully. Idiot’s Delight can be enjoyed for its Casablanca-esque romance, for the music (now nostalgic but then contemporary), and will have maximum impact if you are familiar with the period, but apart from specific references in the dialogue, the overall significance of the themes is current and clear.

$37-$74. Soulpepper's production of Idiot's Delight, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, runs until Mar. 1

Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humorist who writes about culture and social justice.