Community Theater serves several purposes...it allows non-professionals a chance to perform whenever they get the urge and then melt back into real life...it provides a cultural focus and outlet for a general geographic area...it serves as a breeding ground for young actors who need the experience that pro and semi pro Off-Trinity stages want (outside of the Colleges, that is)...and, ultimately, it allows both audiences and production crews alike to (hopefully) have some fun and provide a couple of hours of entertainment without all of the pressure of being professional.
This is the idea, anyway, but most community theaters tend to strive towards or treat themselves like the pros and, increasingly, the pros cut corners and come across like community theater...so we get a muddy middle where audiences are left to gamble away their hard-earned entertainment dollar on what may or may not be an average show for an over-average price. Very few theaters in Rhode Island are charging below the 20 dollar range, but the output differs drastically from venue to venue and company to company.
Academy Players is celebrating season number fifty-five this year and ending the run with a sardonic comedy from the '80's - Andrew Bergman's 'Social Security.' Bergman gave us screenplays for movies like 'Fletch' and 'Blazing Saddles' that play partly like sitcoms and the script for this harmless puff piece appears to be not far off that mark.
So, for slightly less cash than many of its peers in the RI Community...er, community, charge (top ticket price is only $16), Academy ends the year with a safe choice designed to draw smirks from the same audiences that still seem to enjoy Neil Simon and are waiting to mourn the passing of the final Golden Girl.
So the stakes are not high. More Teeth hopes for a few well-placed jokes, a sight-gag or two, and if we're really lucky, a tight ensemble that gets us through a couple of hours no worse off than when we started and rushing home to make sure grandma hasn't broken out the Emmanuelle videos...
Social Security - sweet...but is it the real thing?
Apparently, The Varnum Armory in East Greenwich has multiple uses: military museum, meeting hall, shooting range, abbatoir (judging by the Men's Room, which seems like a setpiece out of 'Saw' or 'Hostel' and even has a sign warning patrons to enter at their own risk (!!) ) and theater. Academy Players has been bounced from building to building over the years and has wound up back on Main Street at this curious, creepy castle that they once used back in the Eisenhower years. Presumably, they performed comedies then, too...so even though it's hard to imagine anything besides the grimmest of Gothic tragedies occurring in this gloomy space, Academy is offering up a slightly bawdy parlor comedy filled with smirky innuendo and a heavy dose of American Jewish humor.
As we said, this is Community theater - the costumes are adequate, though slightly ill fitting due to coming straight from untailored costume stock or the actors' closets...the set is shaky (literally), but serviceable - a workable representation of that same apartment we've been to in production after production...the cast often ill suited to their role, but working it for all they're worth. The audience on the night we went seemed to enjoy the hell out of it...whether they were reacting to the script as written or the actual performance seems almost besides the point. We had a few unexpected bellylaughs as well, and that's always a good thing. This type of script, with stock types bouncing off of each other's character quirks, is begging to be overacted, and we get a strong dose of that from almost everyone at any given moment. Somewhere, lurking underneath, is a morality tale about not giving up on love or sex - mostly sex...no matter how old. Director Tony Annicone chooses not to reach for any subtlety in the intertwining subplots and lets his cast mug and double-take and roll their eyes until the cows come home. It's hard to blame the cast for this - most of them seem to excel in this area and Annicone appears to have chosen this as the style.
However, 'Social Security' is not a farce. Despite a few slamming doors and goofy interludes (most of them surrounding the exploits of the Mother no one wants around, Sophie, played with fearless indelicacy by Molly Marks.) There could have been more peaks and valleys, less face pulling and certainly far less "my hands will describe exactly what I'm saying" ejaculations, but we give in after a while and quit looking for it. The script is funny enough for the actors to mostly just get out of its way and see if there's a reaction. So the largest failing here would be the constant barrage of punchlines delivered full frontal with big eyes and expectant pauses for laughs. A directorial choice? Or something overlooked and not fixed?
The exception here would be Richard Manoogian's nebbish Martin Heyman (whose surname we kept expecting to be part of some joke revolving around their not-so-virginal daughter whose exploits drive a large part of the storyline). He manages to achieve all of the expectant hilarity of his character without delivering it through a shotgun. We actually feel some sympathy for him, even though he turns out to be the biggest jerk of the bunch when he leaves his wife, Trudy (delivered by Laura Leach who, along with Manoogian, looked like they were trying hard to not look as attractive as they actually are by hiding behind glasses and frumpy clothes...we wondered if they were actually superheroes). John Gomes plays suave, sexy (and sexist) art dealer David Kahn as if he were trying to swim upstream of Annicone's direction and go for something beyond two dimensions but he gets trapped into mugging along with his partner onstage, Barbara Kahn (Fern Roleau), who does not seem to share his desire to do something more than look exasperated and pretend to drink.
And speaking of drinks, there is the bar. Many trips are taken to the bar onstage and the one at the rear of the Armory, both of which had their failings. The one onstage was filled with, what we are asked to accept, the stock of wealthy art dealers and tipplers extraordinaire, David and Barbara. Even if we go with the flow and pretend that the art on the walls is actually expensive, or that they would really have that furniture, we cannot swallow the notion that the Kahns would proudly display a bottle of Jaegermeister on their uber-expensive bar. There's trying hard and not quite reaching the mark and then there's just not caring.
And Academy is trying hard...in most areas...they are stuck in this venue with uncomfortable seats for a decidedly older clientele and we witnessed staff rushing to assuage complaints by dragging in armchairs from somewhere in the bowels of the Armory. The meager technical crew (most of whom seemed to be the same person) seemed to be running everywhere at once in order to get lights on and off as needed and dashing onto the stage so fast in between scenes that we weren't sure they weren't a character in the show. And despite the poor choice of liquor props, most technical elements were handled well with simple lights and sound dutifully setting time and place. So, it's sad in a way to watch as they try so hard only to face an angry crowd at intermission over the issue of artificial sweetener. The concessions bar offered an oddly satisfying array of snacks and sodas, but they were unprepared for the coffee crowd. A line built up while two people hunted for creamer and they only offered Splenda...not real sugar. A small detail? Not important? If you drink coffee, it's damn important...Splenda is not sugar and never will be. An oversight on their part and they seemed taken aback by the ferocity of the complaints...it's the same carelessness that allows the Jaeger on the stage when a bottle of decent Scotch or gin is so easy to come by. The overall impression is that they just don't have the resources to get it all together in all areas. And they most likely don't...so at a dollar, it's easy to take what's there and consider it a donation to a local institution.
So, should any of this keep you from seeing 'Social Security'? No, not really. It's Splenda vs. sugar. Most will decide it's still sweet no matter what and Academy's not charging much to ask you to accept it. It's just a good thing they don't have a liquor license...they may only serve Jaeger.
'Social Security' is presented by Academy Players at the Varnum Armory on the corner of Main and Division in East Greenwich. Tickets are $16 regular admission ($14 Senior/Student). Reserve seats at 401-885-6910 or order online at www.academyplayers.org. The second weekend picks up on June 17th and closes on the 20th. The venue is easy to find and there's plenty of street and lot parking nearby. Bring sugar and a seat cushion.
