Month: January 2022

 

Lord Loveworthy is in a pickle. His daughter Emily is engaged to marry an Earl, and being Father of the Bride he’s obliged to pick up the tab. Loveworthy is a novelist, and such is the nature of literature and society, that he doesn’t net nearly enough to manage the expenses. He invites Miles Monger, a revered literary critic, and his wife Millicent to tea, planning to get Miles alone long enough to extort the necessary funds. Without so much as disclosing the secrets, he guarantees that before the evening is done, Miles will gladly pay for the wedding. Quite unexpectedly, Emily shows up early, with a scruffy, bucolic, mountain man in tow. Baffled and perplexed, Lord and Lady Loveworthy, insist that Emily’s new love interest depart forthwith.

Lord Loveworthy is handsome, long-suffering and glib. His wife, Lillian, is peevish, put-upon and contemptuous of men, with all their foibles and stupidity. Fennimore, the Butler, is efficient, and deliciously cheeky. Miles, is an erudite, arrogant critic, pedantic and obnoxious. His wife, Millicent, is submissive, kind, and much more savvy than she appears. Emily is intelligent, enlightened, assertive and confrontational. Emily’s new boyfriend is salt-of-the-earth, rugged, self-sufficient and (*sigh*) gallant.

Written by Jeff Goode, Love Love’s A Pornographer is an homage/mashup of The Comedy of Manners perfected by Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward. This play  is not so much an imitation as a spoof of a spoof. A send-up of a genre. Mistaken identities, snobbish rejection of American culture, subterfuge; juicy gossip, dry and obtuse insults, propriety above all else. The plot and dialogue are gleefully Byzantine and (as we might surmise from the title) decadent behavior is applied like tinsel on a Blue Spruce. These familiar elements are all present, and used to great effect.  Goode takes great pleasure in humbling the aristocracy by mocking and humiliating them. Miles Monger is clearly the most duplicitous, treacherous, haughty and deprecating among them, so naturally he is lambasted with great vigor.

Love Love’s A Pornographer is spirited, clever entertainment. Jeff Goode exploits the tropes of British hubris and the absurdity of affectation, with great gusto and finesse. The cast (under the deft navigation of Carol Rice) is positively submerged in the intricate, defiantly elaborate, unbelievably preposterous plot, jumping into chaos without trepidation or hindrance of rational . All the better to tickle you with, my dear.

Love Love’s A Pornographer starred: Christian R. Black, Blake Rice, Penny Elaine, Lucia Welch, Eddy Herring, Sara Parisa and Matthew Strauser.

Rover Dramawerks presented Love Love’s A Pornographer: January 13th-22nd, 2022. Cox Playhouse, 1517 H Avenue, Plano, Texas, 75074. 972-849-0358. www.roverdramawerks.com

Don’t miss Sweet Revenge, March 17th-26th, 2022.

A goodhearted, somewhat intrepid, repertory theater in Seattle is struggling to stay afloat. The director, Zorah, swings between quite resourceful to overcome with emotion. Zorah certainly has her hands full with the resident troupe of players. She must accommodate egos and eccentricity and the frantic energy that pervades rehearsals for their current production of A Christmas Carol. One of the cast members used to date her, and reminds her constantly of what they had. Another (Larry) compulsively sneaks changes into classic dramas, that supposedly makes them more socially conscientious. And unrecognizable. Part analyst, part babysitter, part referee and part juggler, Zorah, takes it all on, with enviable composure. Kind of.

In the midst of rehearsals, Zorah learns their theater is on the verge of bankruptcy. Funding they’ve previously counted on, has dried up, and A Christmas Carol has always been the show that nets considerable cash. Larry’s up to his usual subversive tactics, and the last thing they need is to meddle with success. They get wind that a representative of the NEA is coming to evaluate their qualifications for subsidy. In the meantime, a sweet-natured (if unskilled) “actor” shows up, and they mistakenly assume he’s the NEA rep. Undercover. Someone they’d never have cast before, is indulged and pampered, and treated to Zorah’s more “seductive” side.

Playwright Daniel Sullivan (and The Seattle Repertory Theatre) has constructed a comedy from the very plausible premise of a small, desperate, dedicated theatre company, doing everything to keep head above water, and pull the show together by opening night. In a strange way, Inspecting Carol is a kind of loopy valentine to the theatre. Sullivan has rigged a pretty wicked mousetrap, and the lunacy just keeps coming. In the fine tradition of Sir William, no gag is too refined or too squalid. Like an alley cat seeking a scrap of food, catastrophe and mishap are always lurking. With splendid results.

I was fortunate enough to see Inspecting Carol closing weekend, and couldn’t write my column before it did. Like so many productions I’ve seen at Richardson Theatre Center, the performers never lack for impeccable timing, impressive comic chops and shameless audacity. Inspecting Carol was a delight and Richardson Theatre Centre will always welcome you, with chipper smiles and warm hugs.

Inspecting Carol played Richardson Theatre Center from December 3rd-19th, 2021. 518 West Arapaho Road, Suite 113, Richardson, Texas 75080. 972-699-1130. richardsontheatrecentre.net

Ken and Chris Gorman are the first guests to arrive at a dinner party, thrown by Charlie Brock and his wife, Myra. Chris and Ken have found Charlie, non-fatally shot, knocked out on Valium. Myra is MIA and the cooks are nowhere to be found. The kitchen is empty. Charlie is Deputy Mayor of New York, and Ken has chosen to conceal an attempted suicide, studiously avoiding a scandal. Lenny and Claire Ganz arrive next, emerging from a non-fatal collision, though Lenny probably has whiplash or something. Lenny immediately starts asking questions, when he’s not bitching about his car. This keeps the story moving, of course, as Ken’s preposterous attempts at obfuscation keep us simultaneously amused and anxious. That being said, Lenny obviously enjoys being an obnoxious schmuck, and the first time we see Claire flip him off, we want to cheer.

Other couples keep arriving. Glen and Cassie Cooper. Ernie and Cookie Cusack. A second gunshot is heard. Cookie, a television chef decides to cook for everybody, and Ernie winds up with nasty cut, while helping her. Cassie is convinced that Glen is stepping out on her (infidelity is a recurring theme) and in a frantic moment, accidentally flushes her New Age crystal down the toilet. It’s not long before the cops show up at the front door, throwing this perpetual tailspin into another gear.

Neil Simon was certainly not the first playwright to create farce by way of havoc. The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Curious Savage, Noises Off, Titanic, all come to mind. The beauty of Rumors is the character development, intelligent strategy, marvelous timing, and creation of actual content. Each couple in Rumors has their particular dynamic, established early, each making their contribution to the insanity. Too often, playwrights seem to think that if they keep the hilarity going, non-stop; well, something’s got to stick. Yet, it’s easy enough to grasp that the closer we keep to the plausible, the funnier it actually is. Some playwrights feed us a boisterous, sumptuous meal. Some dump the food in our laps.

Director Janette Oswald must be a force of nature. Armed with a bold, fizzy, flexible cast (with excellent comedy chops) Ms. Oswald orchestrates this splendid chaos with confidence and meticulous realization. She has taken on the overwhelming task of bringing clarity to a universe under siege. Wrestle polar bears? Why not? Dive into a volcano? Did it last week. Rumors was a tonic in these unsettling days, smart and giddy and wielding the punchline of the Yiddish Proverb: Man plans. God laughs. Even if it’s something as simple as a dinner party.

Allen’s Community Theatre presented Rumors: November 19th-December 11^th, 2021. 1210 East Main Street, # 300, Allen, Texas 75002. (844) 822-8849