Theater Review—

The Sedaris Siblings Have Fun,

As Do Audiences Of ‘The Book of Liz’

By Julie Stern

BROOKFIELD — What does it mean if the actors in Brookfield Theater for the Arts’ production of Amy and David Sedaris’ The Book of Liz have occasional trouble keeping a straight face?  It means it’s a funny show — well, quirky, goofy, droll, and occasionally broadly comic.

Set in Pennsylvania where it is not totally uncommon to see an Amish farmer driving a horse and buggy, The Book of Liz follows the pilgrim’s progress of Sister Elizabeth Dunderstock, a member of the “Squeemish” sect, who eschew modern culture, and get by on farming and the marketing of Sister Dunderstock’s amazing cheese balls.

When a newcomer to the order, Brother Nathaniel Brightbee, takes over her job, relegating her to the task of cleaning up after livestock, Liz runs away. On the road she is befriended by a Ukranian woman dressed as a peanut (an advertising stunt) who steers her to a waitressing job in a tourist trap diner, whose entire staff are “friends of Bill.”

Back at the farm, Brother Brightbee and the community’s leader, Reverend Tollhouse, discover that it is not that easy to replicate Sister Elizabeth’s cheeseballs, and the economic viability of the sect is thrown into jeopardy.

While Liz, who dresses in her strict old fashioned habit and rides a llama to work in deference to her religious principles, is wildly successful at the diner, and is even being recommended for a promotion to manager, she must choose between finding secular happiness in the wide world, or returning to her roots, and thereby rescuing the Squeemish from bankruptcy.

Kelly Doherty-Luf, in the title role, delivers her very funny lines with aplomb, although at times it looks like she’s choking with suppressed laughter. Joe Harding is stalwartly officious as Reverend Tollhouse, and the rest of the cast — Michael Wright as Brother Nathaniel, Cindy Maddox as the obnoxious Sister Constance Butterworth, Denise Fitzsimmons as the peanut lady, Patrick Spaulding as the restaurant manager, and Chris Sumrell as the peanut lady’s husband — all do a fine job with the material. (Actually most of them play second and third parts as well, in the course of Liz’s travails)

And one of the funniest performances comes from a mysterious personage remotely resembling director Matt Austin, as Brother Hesikiah, a small factotum in the Squeemish kitchen.

This is a show with no underlying serious meaning. It is just the Sedaris siblings having fun. Apart from an occasional F word it isn’t likely to harm children. I brought my granddaughter who said she liked it a lot, although she suspected that some of the jokes and references might be over the heads of some kids.

The show isn’t mean spirited, or vitriolic, or gross, or anti-religion. It has more plot and less veracity than The Santa Land Diaries (David Sedaris’s account of his time as a Christmas Elf at Macy’s) and it must have been a fun experience for the cast.

(Performances continue just to September 10, Friday and Saturday evenings.

See the Enjoy Calendar, in print and online, for details.)