With
fine ensemble acting, a truly remarkable
set (Greg Mitchell), and '50s-perfect
costuming (Jen Dugan), Curtain Call
Theatre has launched a winning production
of "Over the Tavern" by
Tom Dudzick. If the text itself is
flawed — which it is —
the technical details are so superior
you hardly notice.
The play starts out as an indictment
of a Catholic school education. A
nun, Sister Clarissa (Barbara Richards),
is attempting to ram the tenets of
the Baltimore Catechism down the throat
of one of her students (Jacob Shipley)
in preparation for his confirmation.
The standard ruler is much in use
for whacking when the 12-year-old
student is unable to remember the
lines, learned by rote, from the little
book. It segues into a comedy/drama
with much made of the dysfunctional
aspects of a "normal"
1950's family living over a
tavern in Buffalo, then attempts to
define itself when the school (in
the person of Sister Clarissa) and
the family come together. If you are
a child of the '50s or you were
brought up in the Catholic School
system, you must see this play, for
it speaks to both. If you were neither,
see it anyway, just for fun.
Angela Potrikus (Ellen) plays the
forbearing mother in the family. She
tries her best to be a disciplinarian
but falls short because of her awareness
of her own shortcomings. Potrikus
finds a marvelous balance between
the numbing aspects of being a housewife
and mother in a lower-middle-class
family and a truly passionate individual.
Richards is remarkable as Sister Clarissa,
with her flawless Irish accent and,
in the end, her startling humanity.
She plays what could be a stock character
with intelligence and wit.
Sev Moro (Chet) is the haunted father
in the piece. He has secrets that
cause his family no end of angst.
Chet is a repressed and angry man.
Moro plays this to the hilt, yet we
see as well the tenderness that often
emerges in his dealings with his wife
and children.
Shipley (Rudy), as the 12-year-old
iconoclast who decides not to become
confirmed and to "shop around"
for his religion, is a natural. His
gift as an actor will grow and crystallize,
to be sure, but even at his tender
age, he matches his adult colleagues
impeccably. Kelly Smith (Annie) plays
the teenage daughter with all the
uncertainty and vulnerability inherent
in that time of life. Robbie Callen
(Eddie) is the 15-year-old brother,
who, like his siblings, has a youthful
thirst for experimentation yet longs
for the stability promised by a family
structure.
Dakota Coons (Georgie) is deliciously
lovable as the "retarded"
son, who learns a word beginning with
"s" and ending with "t"
and has two letters in between, and
who says it at the most inappropriate
of times. He doesn't have much
to say, but he attacks his few lines
with authority and a true sense of
joy.
