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Friday, March 9, 2007
‘Our Town’ invaded @ Dad’s Garage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B
Something creepy is happening in Grover’s Corners, N.H. —- that mythic swatch of Americana immortalized by Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”
It’s May 7, 1901, and next-door neighbors George Gibbs and Emily Webb are about to fall in love. But thanks to Dad’s Garage’s extreme makeover, “Invasion: Our Town —- The Unknown, Uncensored, Unscripted Tales of Grover’s Corners” won’t be the play you remember from high school. And if you see it more than once, it may not be the same play you remember from last time.
Playwright Travis Sharp —- creator of last year’s supremely silly “Lawrenceburg” —- liberates the vintage script from its hallowed sanctum by inviting Dad’s resident improvisers to spew naughty, inappropriate talk all over the squeaky-clean original.
So when the women in long dresses and hats start to cluck about their domestic affairs, they are likely to say something outrageous and giddy and from the hip —- like when Dr. Gibbs’ wife (Leslie Sharp) comments on her husband’s workday by deadpanning: “Those babies came out as easily as kittens wrapped in lard.”
But the real coup de theatre, designed to change every night of the run, is the arrival of an interloper, the so-called “invader,” whose job it is to chase the Grover’s Corners residents to their graves —- and beyond. According to director Scott Warren, each mystery character is a closely guarded secret until the minute he (or she) appears; and while it would be perfectly within the rules for the player to be an angel of light, that wouldn’t be much fun, would it?
And so it was that on opening night a sinister and salacious traveling salesman named Professor Orel Hanks (Z Gillispie) came to purvey his potions and powders and unleash a plague of sickness and foul behavior upon the town.
In the name of comic nonsense, Editor Webb (Matt Horgan) turned into a blithering drug addict, Dr. Gibbs (Matt Myers) got a little too touchy-feely with his own son, and Mrs. Webb (Megan Leahy) became infatuated with Orel’s slimy brand of seduction.
It’s a testament to the nimbleness of the Dad’s improvisers that they can maintain the illusion of a studiously rehearsed piece while responding to the moment with hair-trigger timing. It’s also a testament to Gillispie’s comedic skills that his character turned out to be the most perversely watchable personality in the group. When Orel is heckled as a snake-oil salesman, he responds: “A snake can only sweat and defecate, and I have both of those in my bag.”
Yet as funny as the production I saw turned out to be, it had such a darkly metaphorical twist that it left me with a nagging sense of queasiness and despair.
The idea that mankind is slowly poisoning itself to death —- or that too many parents are failing their children, if not out-and-out abusing them —- should seem achingly resonant to anyone who follows the news. Even Joel Abbott’s improvised keyboard strummings had the makings of some weird anesthesia, like a bossa nova for the undead.
Of course, Wilder himself was preoccupied with nothing less than the inevitable specter of mortality, and our lack of gratitude for the here and now. So it’s fitting that there’s more than just throwaway laughter at play here. The final irony of Dad’s Garage’s strange invasion is that the ensemble gets more than one chance to tweak the script —- just like Emily Webb. Let the anxiety and mirth begin.
THE 411: 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Through March 24. $9-$24. Dad’s Garage, 280 Elizabeth St., Inman Park. 404-523-3141, dadsgarage.com.
THE VERDICT: Thinking man’s improv.
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LAST CHANCE: ‘Irma Vep’ @ ART Station
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charles Ludlam’s “The Mystery of Irma Vep: A Penny Dreadful” is a delicious romp through a rummage kit of Gothic cliches. Emily Bronte’s Heathcliff and Catherine have nothing on Lady Enid and Lord Edgar Hillcrest, who must overcome werewolves, Egyptian mummies and bleeding portraiture before they glimpse love eternal.
First produced by Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company in 1984, “Irma Vep” has seen a few reincarnations on the windswept moors of Atlanta, including a 1990 Theatrical Outfit production starring Don Finney and David Milford and a more recent Actor’s Express howler with the excellent David Crow and Hugh Adams.
Now the quick-change vehicle for a pair of cross-dressing actors has been resurrected at Stone Mountain’s ART Station. All that seems to be missing is a director.
Brik Berkes and Geoff “Googie” Uterhardt are plenty game for the campy parlor room shtick required. Uterhardt, in particular, is in his element as the pert Lady Enid and the lugubrious Nicodemus Underwood.
But even the most frenetic farce requires a little restraint, and director David Thomas lets the actors play goose-silly from the get-go, leaving no room for the subtlety that can evince real-life shivers from the uninitiated.
It’s a mistake not to trust the script, which is funny enough without so much clutter. Still, it’s worth a trip to Mandacrest to see these two stage hysterics revel in the rapping and tapping of Ludlam’s dementia.
THE 411: Through Saturday. $19-$25. ART Station, 5384 Manor Drive, Stone Mountain Village. 770-469-1105, artstation.org.
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