Date: Fri 10-Sep-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: MARYG

Quick Words:

Ives-Players-Stern-Pawlikowsky

Full Text:

THEATER REVIEW: Light, Short Ives In Newtown

By Julie Stern

Last year the Town Players of Newtown put on a very funny production of a

collection of skits by David Ives called All in the Timing. Now utilizing a

rotating cast of eight actors and three directors, the company is presenting a

sequel to that show called Mere Mortals -- six comic one-act plays.

What comes across the first time as startling and original is not always as

effective when you see it again under a new title. Parts of the new production

seem a bit like a collection of out-takes from a movie with an improvisational

script; the bits that were almost good enough to use the first time but didn't

make the cut have been recycled here for laughs.

On the other hand, two of the six segments were genuinely inventive and funny.

"Mere Mortals," the title segment of the collection, explores the

psycho-philosophical dynamics of three ironworkers taking their lunch break on

a girder, fifty floors above the street.

Charlie (well played by Rob Pawlikowski) confesses to his amazed companions

that he is the long lost kidnapped son of Charles Lindbergh, to which Frank

(Manuel Browne) counters with the news that he himself is heir to the Russian

throne, the son of Czar Nicholas. Frank explains that while the world believed

he was murdered along with the rest of his family, he was actually saved

through the machinations of a loyal servant. The impact of these twin

revelations on the third hard hat, Joe (Ron Malyszka), makes for some good

comic tension and a most surprising ending.

"Time Flies" follows a romantic interlude in the life of two young may flies,

May and Horace, who meet, fall in love, and go back to her pad to watch a

David Attenborough Nature program on TV, only to discover to their horror that

the life span of "the lowly may fly" is a mere 24 hours. Christine Veltri

plays the part of May with wistful longing, while Mr Browne in this segment

has Horace alternating between manly swagger and cowering terror at the

prospect of his fate. Rob Pawlikowski makes such mincemeat of Mr Attenborough

that the nature programs on TV will never be taken seriously again.

Most of the other playlets focus on the drollery of conversation between the

sexes, as interpreted by Mr Malyszka along with Pam Sweat and Doug Miller. The

best of these was "English Made Simple," a running translation of the

underlying meaning behind cocktail party small talk.

"Foreplay: Or the Art of the Fugue" explores the attempt to use miniature golf

as a seduction ploy. Unfortunately, as the would-be Lothario gets older, he

doesn't get better (though the women he escorts get wiser.)

"Degas, C'est Moi" deals with a man who decides to become Degas for a day, and

how others react to him. "Dr. Fritz: Or, The Forces of Light" has Robert

Jurgens as a man with a stomach ache in a foreign country, dealing with Joanne

Stanley (who was quite funny in "Foreplay") as a woman who decides to be a

doctor. Hopefully that will never happen to any of the audience on their

vacations.

All six of the playlets are light, and short, which is good.

Auditions With

Town Players