Theater Reviews

Nov 13, 2009 - Bruka Theatre's wacky "The Weber Family Christmas" is a great big holiday winner

By Jack Neal

If you wonder what the Bruka Theatre Company is up to with a show called “The Weber Family Christmas,” you’re not alone. Try as I might (including hiring a detective), it was hard to find any but one hint about what the play is about.

That hint was found in Theatre Bay Area Magazine in “a where are they now” article. “No group was ever wackier,” the magazine trumpets, “than another all-male team, Fratelli Bologna. Originally consisting of ten men doing commedia dell’arte at the 1979 Renaissance Pleasure Faire under the name of La Familia Bologna, the group morphed into I Fratelli Bologna.” La Familia Bologna first produced what Theatre Bay Area Magazine called the “hilariously dysfunctional” play “The Weber Family Christmas.”

It’s no accident the script is written by a chap named Fratelli Bologna with an able assist from Martin Higgins. It’s also no accident the often wacky Bruka Theatre of Reno is having a ball producing this irreverent commentary about “the most wonderful time of the year.” Functioning from a combination of written script and improvisation, the show is a field day for a bunch of hams out to have a good go at entertaining.

Under Rodney Hurst’s swift and zany direction that’s exactly what happens. Any show that can keep a cranky theater reviewer awake during a heavy review season has to be worth its weight in gold. And gold is just what this crazy company of fun-loving actors can expect from a box office that should purr along as word gets around about how much fun this show really is.

Jamie Dunbar is Phil Weber, the Weber family patriarch. Dunbar isn’t as nutty as Jonathan Winters, but he does bring some of the same nut-cake take on Phil Weber, a character that at once looks like good-old-salt-of-the-earth granddad, but behaves in a much more naughty fashion grinning on without a moral worry world. Adam Whitney is Naomi Weber, the Weber family matriarch. Whitney is never a copy, but for reasons of journalistic illusion, he does seem to have much in common with Carol Burnett’s fabulously bickering Eunice against the eternal frowns of Vicki Lawrence as Mama. Whitney has splendid split-second timing and delivers one funny zinger after another in this mockingly mommy-dearest (sans hangers) role.

Jamie Woodham Plunkett is the Weber family daughter, Sally Sue Weber. She is a hop-scotching, double-pony-tailed, pain-in-the-neck 13-yearold - AND a delight every raging-hormone step of the way. Jake Peck doesn’t just play Bradley, he is Bradley and he IS the life of the party. Bradley is a lighthearted post-pubescent young man taken in by the Webers who hasn’t a care – or much of a thought, for that matter – in the world. Daffy isn’t the right word for Peck’s take on Bradley, he’s more puppy than guy, and does in fact revert to puppyhood twice during the course of the play. Peck is a terrific comic talent.

Nick Ramirez (Rob) and John Wade (Neil) are two interlopers, who offer a change of pace whether the show needs it or not. Nonetheless, both as bikers from Burning Man and erstwhile Wise Men from the New Testament, they are welcome additions to the show’s volley of fun and games. When he’s in his wise-man drag, Wade’s laser eyes burn their way through his characterization of lord knows who for superlatively silly moments of belly laughs. Not to be outdone, Ramirez rises outrageously to the occasion for an act (he and Wade together) that’s worth (as the cliché goes) the price of admission. Add Mike Gully to this formidable bill – he’s a full-grown Baby Elvis - and there isn’t a weak link anywhere in this screwball show.

Designer Lewis Zaumeyer is to sets what actor Meryl Streep is two acting. He, too, has done it again. The Weber family living space is a maze of clutter, color and crazy collectables. David Simpson’s lighting and sound designs don’t quite fall into Snob Hill sophistication, but given the tacky taste of the Webers, Simpson gives the show the kind of look it deserves. Adam Whitney’s costumes are – what can one say – typically wonderful Whitney creations of low-brow camp exaggeration.

Two warnings are in order. “The Weber Family Christmas,” while not wildly crude in any sense, is not for children – or the Christian right wing. The show is interactive, so be prepared to be a star - as in “A Star is Born.”

“The Weber Family Christmas” opens November 13 (2009) and can be seen Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. Through December 19 (2009) at the Bruka Theatre, 99 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. The performance is two hours including intermission. Tickets in advance are $18 general admission, $16 for students and seniors. At the door all tickets are $25. For information call 775-323-3221.