Theater Reviews

May 30, 2001 - Reno Little Theater's Charming Take on "A Thurber Carnival"

By Jack Neal

The Reno Little Theater's "A Thurber Carnival" isn't perfect, but it is charming and wholly entertaining.

RLT has done exactly what a community theater troupe should do: produce a play that's so cleverly conceived and written that nothing can sink even the most flawed of presentations. Fortunately, "most flawed" is not the kind of production RLT has managed this time out.

The clever conception and writing is from the enormously productive pen of one of America's most adroit humorists: James Thurber. The play of quick thought and guffawable witticisms is fashioned from many of the characters and situations Thurber brought together so whimsically throughout his long career.

"A Thurber Carnival" is the result, and it's great fun. Best of all for anyone living in the Reno area who likes to giggle and laugh the play is being given a charming go for its money by all hands on deck at the Reno Little Theater.

While the RLT presentation is not without its lapses in timing, nothing can spoil the humorous look at life that Thurber brought to this play and for so very long to the pages of the New Yorker Magazine. Thurber's witty writing, and witty drawings adorned the magazine for decades. So much so, in fact, that when the New Yorker moved from its offices where Thurber had worked for 34 years, it removed one of the walls he used as a sketch pad and sent it forthwith to the magazine's new offices where they are protected by bullet-proof glass.

The seventeen sketches that make up Thurber's "Carnival" play out in just slightly over two hours. A bit long at times; at others not long enough. My favorite sketch is "The Pet Department." The television doctor with the heavy accent is hilariously brought to life by Kevin Sak, with an able assist from Girl Friday, Julie Douglass. It's a tour-de-force for Sak who milks each line for all it's worth and his stretch on this sketch is worth the price of admission.

"The Macbeth Murder Mystery" is a close runner up. Kirk Gardner is the sophisticated English gentleman engaged in conversation by the daffy Mrs. Simmons, smugly managed by Michele Kiser-Pearson. Mrs. Simmon's take on what Shakespeare was really up to when he plotted "Macbeth" is enough to drive a literary person to drink, and so - in this case - it does. Gardner, who is more or less the star of the show, plays a series of roles and he plays them very well. His Walter Mitty, Thurber's henpecked dreamer of heroics, drops easily into Thurber's secret world of fantasy at the mere mention of an exploit. Gardner's monologue, "The Night the Bed Fell," is well paced and shrewdly acted.

Diane Nichols is a standout in several pieces, especially as Miss Bagley in "File and Forget," a delightfully funny take on trying to cancel a book order. Likewise, Brian Bass brings just the right vacuousness to his Mr. Jordan, one of the book company's intellectually elusive executives, as does Michael Peters when he gets his chance to louse things up.

Steve Pearson and Dawn Murphy shine in "The Wolf at the Door" - he as the father, she as the daughter. Murphy is more wordly than most ingenue's who find a wolf in their life, and that is, of course, Thurber's springboard to comedy. Craig Moss has directed. His with-it staging keeps things moving along. He has also had the good sense to let his players have their day and fun while they're doing it. Rick Patton has designed the lighting. It's simplicity keeps the action on the move.

The musical numbers used for the show's opening and close - "Word Dance Part I" and "Word Dance Part II" - are nicely accompanied by a first-rate pianist whose name is never mentioned in the program. (And some people say there's no need for unions.) The musical numbers could have more visual snap (the dancing is a tad fuzzy), but there's plenty enough snap in everything else to make this "Thurber Carnival" snappy enough to entertain even the most dour.

"A Thurber Carnival" can be experienced at the Reno Elk's Club across South VirginiaÝStreet from the Reno/Sparks Convention Center, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 1, 2 and 3. Friday and Saturday performances are at 8 p.m. The Sunday performance is at 2 p.m. For information call 775-329 0661.