FESTIVAL WATCHING - - SHORT NOTES
Spotlight-On Halloween Festival - Fall 2003 - by Louis Lopardi
3 plays by Ed Valentine
directed by Peter Bloch
Couch Play – A spoof of the horrible fringe-type excesses that we've all suffered through - (actors directors and audience alike). Refreshingly funny - but a bit forced at times, it threatened to become that which it was spoofing. Peter Downey's careful delivery and perfect timing helped this and other parts of the evening. Assisted by an urbane Tracy Baker, a wonderfully clueless Campbell Bridges, and very apt and comic body language by Jesse May. Costuming in all three plays was perfect.
Mrs. B – A bittersweet monodrama in which the long-suffering suburban wife (Susan Barnes Walker in an achingly heartfelt and delicious cameo) becomes in her mind the last bride of bluebeard. Excellent Sound Design and cast timing made this work. It could have been hysterically funny with this cast, but I suspect the director chose to tone that aspect down. The black roses were a wonderful touch. I couldn't get the Met Opera production of Bluebeard's Castle out of my mind, it was that evocative.
Snipe Hunt – Almost all of every male's worst nightmares about the Boy Scouts are realized onstage. (But thankfully there was a shortage of rope and warm beer.) An Eagle Scout was made deliciously demonic by Tim Burke. His prime victim: A wonderful characterization by Hunter Gilmore as Bean, the fey and anxiety ridden every-kid. Best in the early scenes, he was pushed later to a strident archness. Or was the point perhaps that nascent musical theatre queens become vicious when they come out? - Perhaps only if they are brought out in a cave by someone wearing a freshly gutted bearskin (you had to be there).