To steal a lyric from
Stephen Sondheim: Ò Send in the clowns/Don't
botherÉthey're here.Ó
Actually, they're
at Curtain Call Theatre, where JJ Buechner
and Jonathan Whitton are channeling a number
of wacky characters from the Tuna, Texas,
menagerie, in this outing called ÒGreater
Tuna, Ò by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, and Jaston
Williams.
The writers must have
spent way too much free time watching ,
oh, Red Skelton, Milton Berle and Charles
Ludlam (he of ÒIrma VepÓ fame, which Curtain
Call is doing in the fall).
The outrageous script
may be something of an acquired taste, but
it's a taste that you can acquire by Act
II if you are willing to let yourself go.
The show is short ø so even if you don't
completely fall in love with these oddball
characters from the Lone Star state, you'll
fall in love with the actors themselves.
The story is loosely
framed. Whitton and Buechner play all of
the characters ø male/female, young/old,
gay/straight, nutty/nutty ø starting with
two radio announcers in Tuna who do a whole
news wrapup before discovering that they
forgot to throw the on-air switch.
TOWN CHARACTERS
From there, we meet
a number of the tiny town's most esteemed
citizens, including Bertha (Whitton) and
her brood of strange children (Jody, Stanley,
and the cheerleader wannabe Charlene), all
played, thanks to the miracle of Velcro,
by the fast-changing Buechner.
Buechner also puts
on a pair of falsies and a fabulous Ô60s
wig to become Vera Carp, who gives us a
lesson on how to be lovingly racist ø praise
God! ø in this Bible Belt hamlet. Whitton
dons a smaller set of breasts to become
the crotchety (an important word here) Pearl
, a tongue-flapping, snorting old gal who
gives senior citizenhood a bad name.
The authors throw
in a number of other small-town souls who,
to one degree or another, haven't a clue,
and so become adorably irritating.
The show, under the
direction (?) of Steve Fletcher, is played
out on a bright, sturdily built cartoon
of a set by him and Marielle Stolk, with
fine lighting and sound by, respectively,
Lori Barringer and Robbie J. Gonyo. All-important
stage management is handled capably by John
J. Quinan.
I use the question
mark only because the gifted Fletcher, the
theater's resident director, probably consulted
the municipal statutes handbook more than
the script when he turned the show over
to Buechner and Whitton.
As I said earlier
this summer about a deliriously funny comedy
in Dorset , ÒMoonlight and Magnolias,Ó there's
no way to cast a play like this unless you
start with actors who have the clown instinct.
ESSENTIAL
ROLE
But Fletcher was absolutely
essential to the rehearsal process because
to play over-the-top, the performer has
to be thoroughly disciplined. There is nothing
left to chance in these two superb performances.
Ironically, though,
a broken shoe heel at Sunday's matinee did
require Buechner and Whitton to improvise,
which they did with hilarious results because
of that discipline.
If you've feasted
on Shakespeare and musicals already this
summer, top it all off with a taste of Tuna.
