Theater Review—

Latest Stray Kats Offering Was Hampered By Story,

Not Acting; Still Worth The Time And Tickets

By Julie Stern

Once again, the Stray Kats Theatre Company filled the Alexandria Room of the Edmond Town Hall for a staged reading by professional actors,  demonstrating that there is real interest in live theater on a Saturday night, and audiences are willing to pay to see Equity level actors even when they are merely reading from scripts. (Costs are kept manageable when the number of rehearsal hours are sharply limited, and the performers don’t have to memorize their lines, they merely have to read them with flair, which they do.)

Under Kate Katcher’s direction, the cast of seven was uniformly good, but especially Norman Allen, a stage veteran who resembled a reincarnation of Barry Fitzgerald, in this play about Irishmen drinking too much in a country pub, while some culturally ambitious amateur thespians attempted to stage a pair of works by famous Irishmen, or Irish-Americans.

The mood was reinforced by the liberal offer of refreshments at intermission — free with the price of a ticket — which included genuine Guinness Stout and corned beef sandwiches, in honor of the upcoming holiday.

I was fine with the production and the refreshments; my beef was with the play itself, which seemed to focus too heavily on the cliché of Irishmen being a bunch of drunks, who blather too much and become forgetful and confused as to what they are supposed to be doing. There was a plot of sorts involving two sets of identical twins (nicely played by single performers) and some humor based on the myriad ways in which the two plays within the play (Synge’s Playboy of the Western World and  O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night) can be butchered, when you’re soused enough.

I understand that this is a work in progress — playright and fringe performer Steve Bellwood was present and ready to field questions and comments from the audience —but I can’t help wishing that it had been a better piece of work. The Irish Curse, currently on stage at TheatreWorks New Milford, is a far better — and funnier — way of recognizing St. Patrick, whatever his origins.

Still,  Stray Kats is definitely a welcome addition to the Newtown scene, with several more productions forthcoming. The next one is on April 28, when Kate Katcher will direct a reading of Richard Dresser’s Wonderful World. (Visit StrayKatsTheatreCompany.org for ticket and curtain details and reservations.)