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Post-Standard, The (Syracuse,
NY)
June 14, 2002
Section: Local
Edition: Final
Page: B2
SINGLE ACTS GIVE VARIED VIEWS
THREE PERFORMANCES PLEASE, BUT THE THREE-HOUR
EVENING MAY BE ONE PLAY TOO LONG.
Laurel Saiz, Contributing
Writer
Appleseed Productions presents
an eclectic - and long - production with its "Evening of One-Acts 2002."
The show gives
theatergoers a chance to
see quality work by great writers, but it logs in at three hours. It might
have fared better as an
evening of two, rather than
three, plays.
The first, "Next," is by
Terence McNally, known for "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune." William
Edward White
plays a paunchy, flat-footed,
balding man with "heredity corns" who is called in for an induction physical.
White pulls
off an outstanding performance.
His foil in this comedy is
a bureaucratic examining officer, Sgt. Thech (Peg Kortz) who would give
Nurse Ratchit from
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest" a run for the money. Kortz never breaks out of her stiff demeanor
as she forces the
hapless man to disrobe and
undergo various physical and psychological tests.
White puts on a comedic tour
de force as he, by turns, tries to convince her he is not Army material,
and then gains
some measure of independence
and gumption, in the play directed by John Poorman.
"The Ugly Duckling," written
by A.A. Milne - of Winnie the Pooh fame - and directed by Greg J. Hipius,
is sweet and
adorable, with a heartwarming
message. Pamela Hipius plays a less-than-beautiful princess who has been
hard for her
royal parents (C.J. Young
and Terry Lynne Gore) to marry off. The King conducts a ruse to have a
more attractive
lady-in-waiting (Megan Flanagan)
stand in to trick Prince Simon (Mark Allen Holt) into marrying her.
It may be a trick, but no
ill will is intended, and things turn out for the best in a fairy tale
with a nice moral: The person
you love is beautiful to
you.
The most original, and longest
at more than an hour, is Peter Shaffer's "Black Comedy," directed by Beth
Suzanne
Ferrara. Shaffer is known
for some pretty stern stuff: "Amadeus" and "Equus."
"Black Comedy," a broad,
physical farce, is based on the most novel of premises: The apartment has
suffered a blown
fuse, and the lights go
out, but every time they can't see anything, the stage lights go on. When
their lights are on, the
stage is dark. It is, as
one character says, "a magic darkroom where everything happens the wrong
way around."
Copyright © 2002 The
Post-Standard. |
