River Company’s fall production of “An Evening of Christopher Durang” opened in the Porter Room at Skidompha Library on Friday. Tom Handel, a founding member of the company, directed the four one-acts.
Minimalist settings and props are a trademark of River Company. This lack of clutter allows the artistry of the actors and director to shine and the dialogue to be the star of the show.
Handel, a skilled actor whose recent performance in “Stones in His Pockets” drew raves, shows his versatility as the director of the challenging works of Christopher Durang.
Contrary to what many people assume, comedy is actually more difficult for performers than drama. To make people laugh, it is necessary to lead the audience away from self-consciousness. Handel deftly staged the five pieces in the production, and cast people to their very best advantage. Kudos to Handel for managing the delicate balance between humor and pathos.
“Mrs. Sorken” opens the evening with her introductory remarks. Ann Foskett as the over-articulate Mrs. Sorken is endearing.
“Mrs. Sorken” is supposed to introduce the evening’s entertainment but she takes the stage herself expounding in the way, though exaggerated and hilarious, of many benefactors who have paid their way to the curtain speech.
Foskett is so convincing as the absentminded Mrs. Sorken that one not familiar with the accomplished actress’ spark, wit, and intelligence might be fooled into thinking that she was someone’s dotty aunt who had just wandered up on stage.
This brilliant performance set the stage for a program of entertaining vignettes that owe their sparkle to impressive local talent.
The absurdist peak of the evening arrived early with “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,” a delicious send-up of Tennessee Williams “The Glass Menagerie.” Sumner Richards as Lawrence collects swizzle sticks and names each one. “I call this one Blue, because it’s blue,” he says. It may be his best performance onstage, ever.
Amanda (Margo O’Leary) was terrific in her first stage piece with River Company. As the Southern Belle of the title, she was the only remotely sane person in the piece, although her other son, Tom (Wayne Barber) seemed like “everyman,” at first. In this piece, and later as Dame Ellen Terry, O’Leary is stellar.
The Gentleman Caller, in this case a Woman Caller, Andrea Handel as Ginny is profoundly deaf. This played well into the comedy.
Andrea Handel always brings something of herself to the stage, and Ginny was no exception. The good-natured Ginny owes a debt of thanks to Handel for humanizing a character that might have been just a cartoon.
Audience members howled with laughter. It is not necessary to know “The Glass Menagerie” to find this one-act parody hilarious.
It is only fair to call the performances brilliant, since this reviewer saw the whole bit through tears of laughter.
In “The Actor’s Nightmare” George (Wayne Barber) wanders onto the stage to be informed that one of the actors has been in an accident and he must replace him immediately. He says, “I don’t remember rehearsing this. I’m an accountant.” He gamely fumbles through one missed cue after another.
Stuck in the moment many actors experience for a second onstage, when a blank takes the place of weeks of rehearsal, George struggles through… sort of.
Actors exit, returning in a different play and poor, disconcerted George loses all sense of contact with his fellow performers. Barber, appropriately befuddled by the confusion, does a bang-up job with George. In this piece, timing is everything. The rapid-fire of Durang’s words is essential, and Barber delivers.
An hilarious turn is done by Kim Fletcher as the Stage Manager who casually wanders on pretending to “dust the castle” to whisper a line to George. Her repeated reluctant returns to save the day are set up as a recurring joke, made funnier by her wide-eyed terror at being forced onto the stage. This is not just an actor’s nightmare; it is a stage managers nightmare, most of whom chose their profession to stay off the boards.
With “Nina in the Morning”, the wealthy, narcissistic Nina (Fletcher) wakens to find her face-lift has fallen. In true Norma Desmond fashion, she holds court with her three children, all played by Wayne Barber, and her manservant Foote (John Price.)
Her two sons keep trying to kill her. Her mentally-challenged daughter Lala is the innocent in the plot. Wayne Barber differentiates each one of the three, with slight costume changes and with body language.
It is Durang’s style to write dialogue that should make one cringe, given time to consider it. His genius is that he refuses to give his audience that luxury. When Nina refers to Lala as “willfully retarded” and moves right on, the audience is in reluctant stitches. It is not surprising that people leave Durang plays and comment on the way home, “I can’t believe I laughed at that.”
“Nina in the Morning” gives veteran actor John Price some great bits, as the manservant who uses dental sedation to knock out the children if they become unruly.
An elegant narration of Nina’s checkered past by Phyllis McQuaide, gives Fletcher the opportunity to relive Nina’s amorous past, with side-splitting result.
The special effects make-up, showing Nina’s attempts to fasten her face together with straight pins, is the icing on the proverbial cake.
Poor Nina, despondent in the funniest of ways, survives yet another murder attempt and considers suicide, but it’s nearly lunchtime and therein lies her dilemma. “Death… or lunch,” she debates,” death or ..lunch.”
“Wanda’s Visit” concerns a repressed and joyless couple named Jim (Sumner Richards) and Marsha (Andrea Handel) who receive an unexpected letter from Jim’s old high school sweetheart Wanda (Ellen Erickson Whalley) Wanda wants to pay a call. Jim remembers her as “a looker” and thinks it will be fun to reminisce.
Marsha is not fooled for a second but has trouble saying no to anything. Andrea Handel’s Marsha speaks volumes with her face, with an eyebrow raised or an audible sigh.
Sure enough, Wanda is the guest from hell and her visit, which turns into far more than just one evening, is disastrous in every conceivable way.
Ellen Erickson Whalley is very funny. All of Wanda’s outrageous stories are true in her hands. Each time she called Marsha a ” jewel, just a jewel, Jim” most women in the audience wanted to smack some sense into him.
Whalley took a caricature and turned her into a believable human. Her matter-of-fact way when saying the most outrageous things, made a difficult person nearly likeable.
Sumner Richards’ Jim, was, well, rather dim and clueless. He went through the visit oblivious to Wanda’s unsubtle advances. Richards’ character eventually catches on, but it is an outside action that rescues the feckless marrieds.
“An Evening with Christopher Durang” may be just what the doctor ordered for if “laughter is the best medicine” then this production is a shot of a miracle drug. The absurdist nature of the works may not be for those who look down their nose at obvious comedy. One has to be willing to laugh at not only the great lines, but at oneself to enjoy the subtitles of Christopher Durang.
River Company delivers an evening of entertainment that leaves the audience cheered and feeling better than when they came in the doors. It is a winning bet for a theater patron with this delightful performance.
Tickets are on sale at 563-8116 for the final weekend performances, Oct. 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday matinee on Oct. 30 at 3 p.m.
