Review
OUTSIDE
Lunchbox Theatre
Starring Shannon Anderson, Robert Klein and Trevor Leigh
Written by Neil Fleming
Directed by Johanne Deleeuw
Runs until October 25
Bow Valley Square
Stu likes being a burglar. He likes to think of himself as living on the outside of society like his hero Spider-Man. Dale is a burglar, too. For her, the profession not only feeds her taste for the good life, but also allows her to live in the romantic world of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief. When they both happen to break into the same home on the same night, it’s a heart-stopping jolt of reality.
Outside, Neil Fleming’s new comedy at Lunchbox Theatre, is frothy fun. It’s an eclectic mix of crime, budding romance and voodoo that results in inspired silliness. Words like wacky, kooky and goofy spring to mind. While the actors draw their inspiration from comic books and ’50s Hitchcock, the play takes its lead from the zany world of situation comedy. Two burglars coincidentally meet on the job. He’s looking for loot. She’s looking for the shrunken head of her husband. As they argue about their "work," the homeowner, a man suffering from a witch doctor’s curse, discovers them. The plot recalls such ’60s sitcoms as I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched.
Director Johanne Deleeuw keeps things moving at a fast pace, never allowing the audience a moment to breathe, let alone question the silliness. As Stu, Trevor Leigh is a thoroughly likable guy-next-door with a talent for housebreaking and no luck with women. Convinced that love is the Achilles heel of superheroes, he is determined to avoid it. Until he meets Dale.
Shannon Anderson plays Dale as a driven woman with an eye for designer clothes and an undying faith that her Cary Grant is out there somewhere. She has a tough façade due to a string of failed relationships, but there are chinks in her armour.
Although the pair fits together like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, playwright Fleming throws in plenty of comical twists and turns to keep them struggling until the final curtain. Their biggest obstacle is John Kranor, a homicidal madman under a bizarre curse. He’s played by Robert Klein in an outrageous, scene-stealing slapstick performance that allows the actor free rein for his own manic energy.
Periodically throughout the play, the action stops and each character addresses the audience, sharing his thoughts about the others or, in Kranor’s case, describing past murderous episodes. Initially, these monologues slow down the play – particularly the lengthy prologue in which each character provides his or her own introduction and exposition. However, as things develop, the monologues allow opportunities for Stu and Dale to share their feelings about each other and gradually draw us into their romance.
Outside is another new script from Lunchbox’s Stage One play-development program. It’s a light comedy that delivers plenty of laughs from a heavy-duty cast. |
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