Popcorn Falls

“Popcorn Falls,” the comedy currently at B Street Theatre, directed by Lyndsay Burch, is advertised to be “a side-splitting tour de force exploding with humor and heart!”

A small town in Michigan was playwright James Hindman’s inspiration for the show. The town was on the verge of bankruptcy until a theater opened. People responded and a couple of years later, the town had two theaters, a hotel and a restaurant jammed with people and the town was saved.

Popcorn Falls is a fictitious town whose tourist attraction is its namesake falls. When a corrupt politician turns off the falls to make it a sewage treatment facility, Mayor Trundle (Greg Alexander) discovers that the town will receive a sizeable sum of money if they can put on a play in a week. There’s only one problem — there is no theater, no play and no actors.

No problem, says Trundle, as he meets other members of the town to get a play produced, proving (as the synopsis in the opening monologue suggests) that “art can save the world.”

Alexander and Dave Pierini, two of B Street’s most popular actors, play more than 20 characters in this comedy, among them, Joe, a janitor; Becky, a bartender; Ms. Parker, the cat-loving town librarian; Floyd, the one-armed owner of the lumber yard; Mrs. Stepp, the chain-smoking middle school teacher and town vamp; and a bored teenager.

Unlike “Greater Tuna,” to which this comedy is often compared, there are no real “costume changes,” and each appearance of a character lasts only a few seconds. Pierini plays most of the characters by changing headgear, minor costume details, body language and accent in an eyeblink, while Alexander is the “straight man,” mostly the mayor and, briefly, one or two other characters.

The speed with which characters appear and disappear is both very funny, but also occasionally confusing since appearances occur so fast it’s sometimes difficult to keep the characters straight, though in the “plot” it hardly matters.

Nevertheless, it’s an amazing achievement, particularly for Pierini, and keeps the audience laughing throughout the 90-minute, one-act performance.

There’s even a kind of surprise ending, but I won’t give it away.

The Wizard of Oz

The land of Oz has gone high tech, in the B Street production of “The Wizard of Oz,” adapted by Lyndsay Burch.   

Gone is the drab Kansas farmhouse and the evil bicycle-riding Miss Gulch.  In this adaptation, Dorothy (Tiffanie Mack) is a video game designer, building a virtual reality Oz game for a holiday release date.  But they have discovered a few glitches and Dorothy must enter the game to find and fix them.  The performance itself, when I saw it, had a few technical glitches of its own that the cast handled smoothly.

Thanks to the Los Angeles-based guest scenic and video designer Kamyi Lee, an exciting digital world has been created, complete with a digital Toto.       

Scary Dave Pierini eats up the scenery as the Wicked Witch of the West, Amy Kelly was the logical choice for the Cowardly Lion, the kind of role that she does so well.  Sam Kebede is the boneless Scarecrow, Greg Alexander is the Tin Man and John Lamb is the Wizard.  Each actor, except for Mack,  has at least one other role which must be most difficult for Elisabeth Nunziato, having to switch from Glinda to Aunt Em in an eyeblink at the end of the show.

But there’s no place like home, and Dorothy is able to fix the video game and return to her office in time for Christmas.

The show is geared for all ages from 5 up and is great fun for adults too. The kids like being included in several spots and love the chase scenes throughout the theater.

The Forever Question

I enjoy comedy, but I’m a tough critic. It takes a lot to make me laugh out loud. With that said, you should know that I laughed out loud throughout the entire first act of the new B Street production, “The Forever Question” by James Christy, directed by Lyndsay Burch.

The play, which won last year’s New Comedies Festival (a pool of 70 plays hoping to be chosen for a mainstage production this year), is about a couple trying to decide whether or not to have a second child.

Playwright Christy says the idea for this play came after he and his wife had their third child and he started to wonder, “How did I even get here?” Writing “The Forever Question” was his way of examining how becoming a parent changes your life forever — and why, having done it once, we ever do it again.

Actors Peter Story and Dana Brooke are stunning, playing the young couple, Mike and Carolyn, and, throughout the play, several other minor characters including her mother, his father, and his brother. They are so effective because all it takes is a small prop (like a beer bottle or a scarf) and a slight change of facial features to pop in and out of character.

This would be funny for anyone, but anyone who has a child — or more than one child — will especially enjoy it and find themselves remembering their early days of parenthood.

Through flashbacks, the couple remembers their first dating experiences and first sexual encounters. Back in today’s time, they make very, very funny observations about parents, babies, sex, childbirth and relationships between men and women.

Mike’s memories of his first sexual experience had the audience in stitches, and his attempts to prove to Carolyn that he understands menstrual cycles only get funnier and funnier.

Carolyn gives birth to their first child on stage — and you have to wonder how they did that as that basketball sized pregnant belly turns into a blanket-wrapped baby when it’s all over.

By intermission, everyone was laughing so hard that as the audience filed out to the lobby for a few minutes, even the usher was still laughing and sharing his own parenting experiences with people in his section of the theater.

I wish I could say that the second act was as good as the first. It was also very funny, but including the death of Mike’s father, the children growing into rebellious teenagers and both Mike and Carolyn facing the prospect of growing older, the laughs were further apart and not as hilarious. They were still tweaking the script on opening night, artistic director Buck Busfield explained, and I would love to return later in the run to see how it changes as it grows.

The scenic design by Samantha Reno is amazing. B Street asked for donations of toys to help decorate the stage and they received so many that Reno has built marvelous mountains of toys that rise up from the floor and hang down from the ceiling. The toys will be donated to children’s groups at the end of the run.

Airness

From left, John Lamb, Same Kebede, Peter Story and Josh Bonzie
are air-guitar rockers in B Street Theatre's “Airness.”
Rudy Meyers Photography/Courtesy photo

How much, if anything, do you know about the art of the air guitar? You have probably seen someone pretending to play the guitar, without an instrument, but is it really “air guitar.”

Chelsea Marcantel, the author of a play called “Airness,” now at B Street Theatre’s “The Sofia,” is not an air guitarist and admits that she had no idea such a thing existed, and when she learned of it thought, “This is the dumbest thing in the world.” As she learned more, she began to appreciate the performance art and “fell in love with that world.”

So don’t discount this fun play out of hand because you think you know what it will be like. I, too, thought this was “the dumbest thing in the world,” but feel like I had a master class in that world watching “Airness.” I won’t say I’m a convert, but I certainly have a new appreciation for the art than I did before seeing this show.

U.S. Air Guitar is the national association of air-guitar artists, whose mission is to send American representation to the International Air Guitar Competition in Finland each year. Competitions are held in a dozen or so cities around the country, each of which picks a winner to join with the other winners and travel to Finland to compete in the final. (Why Finland? Who knows?!)

We meet Nina (Stephanie Altholz), a real guitarist trying to get over a broken heart, who decides to compete in the Chicago competition and figures she has an edge because she already knows how to play the guitar, but she learns from Shreddy Eddy (Peter Story), Golden Thunder (Sam Kebede), Facebender (John Lamb) and Cannibal Queen (Tara Sissom) that air guitar is much more than just pretending to play a guitar. It’s the ability to translate your dreams of becoming a rock star, in 60 seconds, into something that the audience can see and rock out to.

What may seem ridiculous on the surface has real depth and artistry and Nina is having a difficult time grasping that. But she begins to bond with the little community. “We are all each other’s biggest fans.”

Kebede sparkles as Golden Thunder, in his shopworn golden cape and unfailing bravado. His acts get grander and grander, most memorable in his salute to the American flag. Try to forget that!

Lamb is perhaps the heart of the story, the oldest of the group who gets his personal self-worth from what he does, be-wigged, on the air-guitar stage, since he doesn’t get it in his off-stage life.

In his Facebender persona, he speaks in sonnets, which disappear when the costume comes off. His daughter has never seen him perform and the thought of her coming is enough to send him into an apoplexy of anxiety.

Sissom delivers a sizzling performance as Cannibal Queen. She has fought to be considered an equal among these men — and she has. Her performances ooze power.

She and Nina are oil and water from the start, since she is now dating the man who broke Nina’s heart, and what she teaches Nina about that relationship will shape her future as an air guitarist.

Peter Story’s Shreddy Eddy is fairly low-key, as he becomes a mentor for Nina but when he lets rip on stage, he’s unstoppable. “We share the common dedication of the air guitar world: to share world peace.”

Josh Bonzie is David D’Vicious, the reigning king of the air-guitar world, and Nina’s ex. He strides on stage with bravado, knowing he is the king and will be the king. Bonzie delivers a powerful performance and shows how brutal competition can be.

A search through the program reveals that Wade McKenzie-Bahr and Dylan Ballesteros are the theater technicians, who made the many scene changes so much fun and really were almost as much a part of the play as the actors themselves.

They say that we can keep our brains active by learning a new thing every day. Do yourself a favor by heading to The Sofia and learning about air guitar. You’ll have great fun in the process.

On June 9, B Street is hosting an official US Air Guitar Qualifier in Upstairs at the B. The winner will head to Brooklyn, N.Y., and attempt to win the national championship.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

B Street’s production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” adapted by Le Clanche du Rand and directed by Jerry Montoya has been so popular that its run has been extended to May 6. 

The 55 minute production takes place in the larger of the two theaters in B Street’s new complex, “The Sofia,” a room which is large, warm, and very comfortable. 

In addition to its regular performances, B Street also offers free performances of this play for Sacramento area school children during the week, two performances a day.  I arrived between the 10:00 and 11:30 performances and found a fleet of school buses outside the theater and what seemed like thousands of children in the lobby of the building.

The theater seats 386 and was nearly full of children from very small kindergartners to high schoolers, all of whom were surprisingly well behaved.

There is a cast of two, Dana Brooke and John Lamb, who are listed as Lucy and Peter (two of the Pevensie children) but who actually play all the characters, changing costumes, wigs, and voices as the act out the story of the children who go through a wardrobe into the magical world of Narnia, where they have adventures before returning to the wardrobe.

I was happy I had recently read the book because I think it might have been more difficult to follow the plot if I didn’t already know it.  Brooke, as the White Witch is particularly difficult to follow due to a reverb use in her microphone which gave her voice a creepy quality that my ears could not understand much of the time.

However, the kids loved it and the intermittent inclusion of the audience to answer questions brought them into the story beautifully.  When Peter and Lucy travel to find the lion Aslan’s table (which has great significance in the story), for example, their travels take them all through the audience before finally landing them back on stage.

It is essentially a bare stage, with no complicated scenery, which set designer Samantha Reno has filled with drawings to represent the various scenes, which are projected on the back wall.  From the moment the large beautiful English manor house where the children are visiting appears on the screen, one knew that sets weren’t really going to be necessary.  In fact, this production fits beautifully with the type of children’s theater that B Street has performed since 1986, which allows a child’s imagination to soar with the assistance of two excellent story tellers.

“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is fun for all ages, but don’t be afraid to take the very little ones (5 and older) and enjoy the show together.

Dry Powder

 

The program for Sarah Burgess’ “Dry Powder,” newly opened at B Street theater, contains a one page glossary for many of the terms used in the Wall Street-based play.  Things like LPs (Limited Partners), IPO (Initial Public Offering), and Dry Powder (amount of cash reserves or liquid assets available to a private equity firm).

Critics get a packet in which there are five pages in the glossary, which gives you the idea of what an insider-rich play this is.

The action centers around KMM Capital Management, which is in the business of overhauling businesses (“buy companies, increase their value, then exit”).

Things get complicated, but what makes this production extraordinary is the first rate cast of B Street regulars.  If you want to insure a top notch production, cast Dave Perini, Melinda Parrett, and Jason Kuykendall.  This year B Street has added Jahi Kearse as another regular and it’s easy to see why.

We first meet Perini as Rick, the head of a Wall Street firm who has just received news that one of his best customers is moving his business elsewhere following a lavish engagement party (there was really only ONE elephant) Rick held at the same time the company was announcing layoffs at a grocery store chain it had bought.  Rick is nearly suicidal.  Jenny (Parrett) is there to literally talk him off the ledge while Seth (Kuykendall) arrives with a brilliant idea for taking on a new business.  He has been sweet talking the head of a luggage business (Kearse as Jeff).

(With all the on-stage costume changes, meetings over cocktails, etc., kudos are deserved by the unnamed technician who so smoothly wheels costume racks in and out and mixes drinks for whoever needs them)

Jenny and Seth have different ideas about the new merger.  His is in keeping with the desires of Jeff and will keep business in the US and ensure that his employees will keep heir jobs.  Hers fires all the employees, ships the business overseas and makes lots of money for everyone.  Her plan also threatens the merger completely, since Jeff is so dedicated to the fate of his employees.

The back and forth among all the characters is perhaps predictable, if the solution is not, but it is the acting that raises this dramady above average.

Perini is perfect as the mercurial Rick, Parrett plays one of the ice queen roles that she does so perfectly, while balancing on impossibly high heels–it’s all the bottom line, and who cares about the little people hurt in the process?  Kuykendall is the guy with the morals, who cares about what happens to everyone, who wants to be fair to the luggage company, while still saving KMM, just not as grandly as Parrett’s proposal.  Kearse is the guy caught in the middle, between his devotion to his employees and the lure of the big bucks.

Kuykendall and Parrett have a hilarious argument which descends to who had the higher G.M.A.T. score (the business school entry exam).

The bottom line of this play is...the bottom line...and learning that most of the folks who work in the business world are more interested in higher finance than the well-being of the little man who got them where they are.

One Man, Two Guvnors

Peter Story, left, who stars as Francis Henshall, and Amy Kelly,
who juggles multiple roles, perform in the hilarious
“One Man, Two Guvnors” on stage now at the B Street Theatre.
Rudy Meyers Photography/Courtesy photo

 The folks at the B Street Theatre picked the perfect vehicle to introduce patrons to their beautiful new theater, The Sofia (the Sofia Tsakopoulos Center for the Arts), on Capitol Avenue (there is a huge parking garage next door).

The first thing to notice about the expanded, 380-seat main theater is the size of the stage. Now with wings and fly space, scenic designer Samantha Reno was able to build huge walls that slide to the side, large backdrops that roll down and back up again, and pieces that fly in from the top to create an impressive, often-changing scene.

For the first show, Buck Busfield, producing artistic director/director, chose Richard Bean’s “One Man, Two Guvnors,” the insanely funny modern adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th-century Italian farce, “The Servant of Two Masters.” The show was a runaway hit for James Cordon when it opened in England in 2011.

In the pre-show greeting, Busfield explained to the audience that after last season’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” the patrons complained that it made them think too much — and he promised they wouldn’t have to think at all to enjoy this comedy.

The show opens with music by a “Skiffle band” playing rockabilly songs composed by Grant Olding. The basic band is Jerry McGuire, Olivia Schaperjohn and Hunter Henrickson, with various members of the cast joining in as fillers during scene changes.

As for the cast, this is the perfect show to unite many of the old-time, familiar B Street regulars — Stephanie Altholz, Jason Kuykendall, Elisabeth Nunziato, Jahi Kearse, Kurt Johnson, Tara Sissom, Greg Alexander, John Lamb, Amy Kelly and Dave Pierini.

Leading them all is Peter Story as Francis Henshall, an out-of-work (and starving) skiffle player (musician) who finds himself employed by two different men, and must keep both from learning about the other.

Story is outstanding in a role that requires perfect comic timing, a flair for physical comedy, and a personality warm enough to make interaction with the audience a part of the show.

All of the others are at the top of their game, particularly Kuykendall, the nervous, not-overly-bright billionaire searching for his fiancée, Rachel, and Altholz, delightful as Rachel, pretending to be her murdered brother Roscoe.

Kelly plays several of the smaller roles, and also appears as part of the band. I am always impressed with the range of this actress’ talents, who, in this show, is particularly good at pratfalls. Lots of them.
As they say, hilarity ensues, including confusion with doors, food fights, dropped pants, police chases, mistaken identities and even bird poop.

The rapid-fire dialogue is crisp and comical, including the alliteration surrounding the letter “d”: “He was diagnosed with diarrhea but died of diabetes in Dagenham.”

Francis also delivers a very-funny monologue with himself about whether he is confused or not (“I don’t get confused that easily. Yes I do. I’m my own worst enemy. Stop being negative. I’m not being negative.”) that ends up with him fighting with himself. More pratfalls.

This splendidly silly modern masterpiece is two hours of non-stop laughing. I dare anyone to see it and not come out with a smile on their face.

Moving Day

From left, Tim Liu, Stephanie Altholz and
Kurt Johnson perform in B Street Theatre's
production of “A Moving Day.”
Rudy Meyers Photography/Courtesy photo

It is deliciously ironic that the very last production to be presented at the current B Street Theatre location — before the company’s move to its new digs, “The Sofia,” at 27th Street and Capitol Avenue, at the end of the year — is a play called “A Moving Day,” by Dave Pierini and Buck Busfield.
(“Dave did the writing; I fixed the commas,” Busfield joked.)

Though it’s barely past Halloween, this is another B Street original Christmas production, a 23-year old tradition. The company is going out with a bang with this funny, yet moving story, which finds its inspiration in the tradition of “moving day” in Canada, the date on which most residential leases begin. By the city’s estimate, about 115,000 of Montreal’s 1.6 million residents relocate every July.

The day before moving day, all previous leases end and occupants must be out of their homes, or face confrontation with the police. “Moving day” also became common in places like New York and Ohio.

And so the play “A Moving Day” is set in Cleveland where two movers, Frank (Kurt Johnson) and Casey (Tim Liu), are packing up a house while engaging in a spirited discussion about Casey’s unsuccessful love life. Their conversation is interrupted now and then by phone calls from Frank’s wife, who has just left Frank to live with her sister, but is willing to get together with him to discuss things, if he can make it to a certain location at a certain time.

As the movers are about to remove the second stack of boxes, they are surprised by the appearance of Patrick (Greg Alexander), who has apparently been upstairs, and announces that this used to be his house and he needs to postpone the moving for one more day until he can search the house for something special he left behind. Though he has not lived in the house for many years, it is still his family home.

While Frank and Casey attempt to remain uninvolved, Patrick’s arguments become very persuasive and they have to force themselves to continue moving boxes.

When only Casey is on stage, a young girl, who calls herself Mouse (Stephanie Altholz), wanders in. She is apparently homeless and also has been crashing in the house; she hopes they will postpone the move.

Patrick and Mouse work together to tear the house apart looking for the missing object that Patrick associates with his late sister and that has great sentimental value for him.

Jamie Jones makes a brief walk-on appearance (perhaps so the actress can appear in B Street’s last production in the old theater) as Frank’s wife.

As Patrick settles in more firmly, determined to have one last Christmas in his family home, and the movers’ resolve wavers, the audience waits to see how it’s all going to play out, perhaps not suspecting the clever twist in the plot.

With the caliber of actors in this play, most B Street regulars, it can’t help but be outstanding. Tim Liu appears to be new to B Street, but he is excellent as the anguished Casey, having been rejected (“ghosted,” as he puts it) by so many other women, trying to make his case with Mouse.


This is a comedy with warm dramatic overtones and sets the stage for the upcoming holiday season — though playing Christmas carols in the lobby before Thanksgiving is a bit unsettling.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

 

Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” is an American classic, first produced in 1962, winning the Tony and Drama Circle award for best play, the Pulitzer Prize for best play and Tonys for its stars.

In 1966 it was made into a movie, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and is one of only two films to be nominated in every eligible category at the Academy Awards, winning five awards. It is preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”

It’s heavy history for a local theater company to take on, but B Street Theatre is up to the challenge. Director Dave Pierini confided to the audience before the play began that to get permission to do an Albee play, the Albee estate has to approve the actors, the director, the stage design, costumes, etc. — so it is a real privilege to be given the rights to do this play.

The B Street production does not disappoint.

This story of George and Martha, the Bickersons of the 1960s, is an intense look at a marriage that appears to be falling apart, but what holds the couple together is their hatred of one another, and a dark secret they are holding that binds them to each other. Watching them go at each other for three hours (with two intermissions) is exhausting, but at the same time exhilarating.

Kurt Johnson and Elisabeth Nunziato are simply marvelous. Martha’s father is the president of a college and George is a professor in the history department (not the head of the department, Martha is fond of reminding him, as a way of putting him down).

It seems that everything she says has the intent of evoking some sort of a response from him that will lead into a further argument.

George is henpecked and knows it, but he can give as much as he receives in the verbal sparring with his wife. Both know how best to hurt each other and don’t hesitate to do it.

The play begins at 2 a.m. when George and Martha have just returned home after a party, obviously feeling the effects of the liquor they have consumed. Martha confesses that she has invited a new professor, 20-something Nick (Jason Kuykendall, Nunziato’s real-life husband) and his wife Honey (Dana Brooke) to drop by.

Nick and Honey aren’t quite sure what they are doing there so late at night, but the four consume massive quantities of alcohol. I was mostly impressed with Kuykendall, who got drunker and drunker very convincingly, while the others went from sober-sounding to drunk-sounding quickly.

Kuykendall’s reaction was not only in the slow slurring of his speech, but the changes in his body language, too.

The more he drinks, the more he drops the innocent young professor persona and displays his disdain for George, who has been at the college for years and still has not risen to the head of his department.
Honey, on the other hand is more childlike and in awe of George and Martha, but physically affected more and more as the arguments escalate. She also begins to realize that as much as George is a source of Nick’s contempt, so, too, is she. One wonders if in 20 years they will be the George and Martha of the campus.

Martha uses Nick to mock George by making sexual advances to the younger man, though after a tryst in the bedroom, she is not above pointing out that he is sorely lacking in his sexual prowess. George insists that they all play a game, a grotesque game that leave all four stripped bare.

The play comes to a dramatic conclusion with an agonizing monologue by Martha, performed by Nunziato with heart-rending authenticity.

Albee died in 2016. With the finicky restrictions on productions of his works, continued by his estate, one can only think that even he would be proud of this production.

The audience should be aware that herbal cigarettes are smoked throughout the evening.

The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey

Rich Hebert plays multiple characters in
“The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” on stage now at B Street Theatre.
Rudy Meyers Photography/Courtesy photo

It was a sad irony that we saw B Street Theatre’s B3 production of “The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” on the horrible day of the Charlottesville violence.

The James Lecesne play tells the story of the murder of a gentle young gay man whose life made an impact on many people in the small town where he lived, but who had long been a victim of bullying in school.

It is described as “an affecting and entertaining treatment to the beauty of a world in which difference is celebrated rather than denigrated” — a lesson we would all do well to remember.

“The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” is a stunning solo performance by Rich Hebert, who tells of the disappearance, investigation and eventual murder of a 14-year-old boy known as much for his gentleness and kindness as he was for his “difference.”

Hebert starts the play as Chuck DeSantis, the world-weary detective in charge of the investigation, remembering that time 10 years ago when he worked on the Pelkey case. DeSantis is your stereotypical New Jersey cop, right off the pages of a “Law and Order” script.

In a flash he is no longer the cop, but the boy’s aunt, a beautician, who took him in when he was orphaned and raised him.

Leonard was an individualist, his aunt explains, who insisted on making his own shoes by gluing multi-colored flip-flop soles to his Converse high tops to give a rainbow effect and wearing eye shadow — though he knew it would make him the object of ridicule and bullying. He wanted to live life on his own terms and was willing to pay the price for that.

“He told me that if he stopped being himself, the terrorists would win.”

Then Hebert is her daughter, bitter over Leonard’s intrusion into their lives, but obviously tormented by his disappearance.

Throughout the play, Hebert plays many characters, male and female, young and old, whose statements, when put together, give us a pretty clear picture of Leonard, perhaps more clear than the only available photo him, which is quite blurry and shows only a hint of who he really is.

Hebert’s many character changes, including a British drama and dance teacher and a widowed moll, are amazing, as with only simple body language and voice modulation, he becomes a completely new character.

While the story centers around a tragedy that will bring a tear to the eye, there is a lot of joy, too, as we enter a world many of us may not be familiar with. Leonard, who works in his aunt’s salon, has many friends among the clientele, who try to help him fit in better.

“Tone it down, honey. The nail polish, the mascara — maybe not so much.”

As we look back on the events in Charlottesville and the hate that spawned it, we could all do well to think of Leonard and how much one “different” person can make an impact on those around him.

Hand to God

From left, Margery (Elisabeth Nunziato) leads a church puppet workshop as her son Jason (Ryan Borses)
works his demon-possessed puppet, Tyrone, in “Hand to God”
on stage through July 23 at the B Street Theatre.
Rudy Meyers Photography/Courtesy phototion

When a critic goes to see a show, he or she is usually given a packet of information about the show, the playwright and other pertinent information. When the B Street Box Office handed me a packet for “Hand to God” that included not only a “history of puppetry” but also a “brief history of demonic possession,” I knew we were in for something … unusual.

Unusual is putting it mildly.

This hilariously funny play from the demented mind of playwright Robert Askins is everything a normal person should hate (and some in the audience did leave at intermission). It is raunchy and irreverent, and yet, we in the audience laughed uproariously and gave the cast a standing ovation.
The story concerns a puppet, Tyrone (who resembles a Muppet from the wrong side of the tracks), who is possessed by the devil and is manipulating the life of teenager Jason (Ryan Borses), a young man depressed about his father’s recent death.

Borses gives an outstanding performance as both Jason and Tyrone, who seems permanently attached to Jason’s arm. Borses is able to create distinct personalities for the two characters and accurately displays a range of emotions, including the depth of Jason’s depression and Tyrone’s anger, often simultaneously, in one fast-paced dialog between the two. It has to be seen to truly be appreciated.
The action takes place in a church basement where Jason’s mother Margery (Elisabeth Nunziato) is leading a puppet workshop, as part of Pastor Greg’s (Dave Pierini) outreach to younger people.

Also part of the group are Timmy (Andrew Mazer), the perennial bad boy who is more interested in making moves on Margery than on making puppets. Jessica (Stephanie Altholz) is the polar opposite to Timmy, a goody-two-shoes who tries to keep the peace, despite her own puppet’s desires.

Margery isn’t really interested in the workshop, since she has just lost her husband, and is trying to work through her own grief and depression, which does not include Jason, who turns to Tyrone for comfort.

Tyrone becomes more and more demonic as the play progresses, growing teeth and pointy ears along the way. He and Jessica’s creation, a busty puppet named Jolene, find a mutual attraction and the resulting puppet-on-puppet action, while hilarious, would earn the play an X rating if the beings involved actually had genitalia.

Everyone in this workshop eventually succumbs to their baser instincts and under Tyrone’s delighted cheering, they all give in to temptation to express the hate, lust, violence and fear that exists in all of them. The professional skills of the puppeteers, who keep up a running in-depth conversation while their arms are engaged in unspeakable action with each other, is remarkable.

This wildly irreverent but very funny play also explores the more serious topics such as the nature of grief and the repression of human nature, and ultimately finds redemption and a way to defuse the out-of-control Tyrone.

All of the actors are wonderful, with Mazer as the greaser who appears just dumb and horny, but actually longs for the love that Jason seeks as well. Nunziato’s grief at the loss of her husband is always just below the surface as she is drawn to her baser instincts and ultimately her realization of her feelings for her son.

Altholz is not as prissy “goody two-shoes” as she seems and has her own moments of audaciousness.
Rounding out the cast, Perini is a well-meaning pastor who has the hots for Margery, but manages to keep himself in check.

Samantha Reno’s set is a fun puppet workshop until Act 2, when Tyrone takes over and the change is very striking.

This is a play you really want to dislike and feel somehow you should not be watching, but you can’t help being drawn into the story and laughing uncontrollably throughout.

Lungs

“Lungs,” a play by the young playwright Duncan Macmillan (whose “Constellations” was produced by B Street recently), may have been written with millennials in mind, but it has appeal for all ages.
It follows the lives of M and W (no names are given) through the rocky eras of their lives, an odd love story, but fascinating, in its many twists and turns.

Directed by Lyndsay Burch, this two-person, 100-plus-minute piece features the talents of the amazing Jahi Kearse as M and Dana Brooke as W.

The set by Samantha Reno pictures an amorphous outdoor scene. While the script calls for no set at all, the designer wanted to create an environment that could represent both inside and outside and “the circle of life.” Also, as questions of threats to the environment loom large in this work, this seemed appropriate.

As the action begins, the couple are in line at IKEA when M decides to broach the subject of whether this might be the time to start thinking of having a family. This takes W by surprise and she starts one of her many diatribes about the ethical issues of raising a child in an age where there is political unrest, where climate change is a major issue, and if you really care about the planet, even if you are a “good” person, is it right to have a child? Particularly when the carbon footprint of that infant will be 10,000 tons of CO2?

“That’s the weight of the Eiffel Tower. I’d be giving birth to the Eiffel Tower,” W wails.
On the other hand, maybe this child will be the one who makes major contributions to all of these problems.

But what about the in-laws, who are none too happy with the whole relationship in the first place? The discussion goes back and forth, agonizing over wanting a baby and worrying about if this is the right time — or if there will ever be a right time.

Both very funny, and then very poignant, these issues are at the heart of this play. The characters are maddening and lovable by turns, each with his or her own flaws, but always, no matter what happens, deeply in love with each other.

W is the more high-strung of the pair, while M is more laid-back, a good man desperately trying to figure out what he can do to make things better for the woman he loves, but not really understanding what she is saying most of the time (a situation any woman can relate to!).

The dialog would put the wordy David Mamet to shame, as it is smart, rapid-fire with impeccable comic and dramatic timing, which works only because of the talent of the two actors. Sometimes the monologues of one or the other of them leaves the audience breathless trying to keep up.

This is a moving, funny, always engrossing play raised to new heights by the talents of two actors. When Macmillan wrote this he was only 30 years old. One wonders what a career he has ahead of him.

Treatment

What happens when you put three of Sacramento’s funniest ladies together and tell them to write a play? You get a lot of funny stuff!

B Street Theatre has just opened a brand-new play, “Treatment” by Stephanie Altholz, Tara Sissom and Amy Kelly.

“Buck (Busfield) got us all together and said ‘You’re all funny, despite horrible things that happened to you. I want you to write a play about how funny came out of it,’ ” Altholz said.

A year later, the play is on the stage under direction of David Perini.

Though apparently the life experiences the women have suffered were the inspiration for the play, one would be hard-pressed to figure out who has experienced what. This is a play about other women and can easily be performed by any set of wonderful comediennes.

To write the play, the women decided to go camping so they would have a good atmosphere for brainstorming. Not only did they get ideas, but they decided that this would be the perfect venue in which to set their story. In fact, Sissom took notes on their discussion and those notes became the frame on which they hung the rest of their story.

The setting is a campsite on the one-year anniversary of the death of Jayne’s mother. Jayne (Sissom) has had difficulty saying goodbye and letting go, but she is finally ready to spread Mom’s ashes and has brought her best, lifelong friends, Roxanne (Altholz) and Patricia (Kelly), with her for emotional support.

Roxanne must really love her friend because she is germ- and dirt-phobic, knows nothing about camping and hates what she knows. She looks like she would be more comfortable chairing the local PTA meeting. But she has shown up to support Jayne.

Patricia, on the other hand, loves being there but has brought as much comfort with her as possible, including a slow cooker. Kelly is a remarkable physical comedienne with a wide range of facial expressions that serve her well, expressing everything from glee to depression and just about everything in between.

Jayne wants to commune with nature and has not thought to bring things like tents or sleeping bags or anything else to make it easier to live in the wild overnight. She is centered on giving Mom the best possible send-off.

There is a lot of very funny physical comedy (particularly involving bears), which kept the audience laughing. But as the day passes and the women cope with the various problems that come up, and pass around a large bottle of Jim Beam, walls begin to fall.

Though these are lifelong friends, they discover there are very serious things that they don’t know about each other. Their friendship will be tested, but in the end it is their long-term association with and love for each other that will not only keep them together, but make the bonds stronger.

Oh yeah — and you’ll laugh a lot during the exploration.

The thin plot is not the strong point of this play — the relationship among the women is … and the real-life relationship among the three authors has produced a thoroughly enjoyable result.

Concussed: Four Days in the Dark

 

I love Jack Gallagher.

No, wait a minute. I like Jack Gallagher very much. I learned that he is very selective about the people whom he claims to love, saving that term for those in his most intimate circle. Still, I can’t help but think that I really do love Jack Gallagher.

The comedian is opening his seventh one-man show and sixth for the B Street Theatre, his last being 2015’s popular “5 Songs,” a show about which he talks in this current production, “Concussed: Four Days in the Dark,” directed by Jerry Montoya.

Anybody who likes to bike (and who in Davis does not?) will relate to this story, which talks about Gallagher’s biking habits. In fact, the stage is set with huge interacting gears and a bike and the paraphernalia related to his love of biking.

It was, in fact, his love of biking that changed his life, and that ultimately brought about this show. Three years ago, while riding his bike home, he was hit by a car and three days later was diagnosed as having a traumatic brain injury.

The doctor ordered him to bed immediately. He was to stay in a darkened room with no stimuli whatsoever. No TV, no iPad, no radio, no internet, no nothing. He needed to give his brain a chance to heal.

This play, which is both touching and very funny, is like a free association of all the things you think of when you are trying not to think. His biggest fear was that he had lost the ability to find words.
Words are his life, and knowing how to find them, manipulate them, and the ability to cut and paste in his mind while doing a show to match the response of the audience was something he had done all of his professional career. What if he couldn’t do it anymore?

He was 61 when the accident happened, so he talked a lot about getting older, and the predominantly gray-haired audience laughed and nodded in agreement as he recounted, for example, how one gets out of bed when one reaches a certain age.

He talked of parenting his two sons, Declan and Liam, and what he wished he had done differently as a father. In fact, as he began to recover he took trips across the country with each of the boys, the northern route with Liam and the southern route with Declan, just being a couple of guys enjoying being together.

The experience of having a concussion, he believes, was transformative, and he says he’s become a better person as a result. He has learned the importance of being in the moment, not always living for the future. He learned the importance of speaking your love to those for whom you really love, and he even learned a little humility, now that he needs a few notes on stage during his 90-minute shows, something he was proud of not needing before.

(He admits that he can’t remember much about “5 Songs,” though one would not have known there was anything wrong, watching that show at the time.)

Gallagher is a remarkable comedian in that he knows how to work an audience, especially one like B Street, where the audience sits on three sides of the stage. At no point did anyone feel that they were just watching the back of his head. He had a way of unobtrusively involving everyone without being overly obvious about it. It was as if we were guests in his living room and he wanted to include all of us in his conversation.

He also made you feel like he was baring his soul just for you, while telling you that he is a very private person who bares his soul only to his most trusted friends and family.

Most in the audience were middle-aged or older but I think Gallagher’s humor would appeal to just about anyone. Well, maybe not to the two 20-somethings sitting next to me, one of whom slept through the whole show while the other thumbed through the program for 90 minutes. They missed something very special.

Becoming Dr. Ruth

Anne O’Sullivan got the audience’s attention right away.

“People don’t look at the elderly as sexual beings. … Worse, some older people don’t see themselves that way.” Since most of the people in the audience for the performance I attended had white hair, they were interested immediately.

O’Sullivan is playing famous sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer in a new play, “Becoming Dr. Ruth” by Mark St. Germain, now at the B Street Theatre, directed by Jerry Montoya.

Like Julia Child (who worked for the OSS during World War II), the diminutive Westheimer has a more interesting back story than simply that of a cute little old lady who likes to talk about sex. In fact, though she delivers sexual advice throughout the 90-minute show, sex is actually the least interesting part of her story. The very last thing this show is is salacious.

The setting is Westheimer’s apartment in 1997, shortly following the death of her third husband, Fred Westheimer (to whom she was married for 36 years and raised two children). She is preparing to move across town and as the show opens, she is on the phone talking to one of the movers, to whom she ends up giving marital advice.

As the lights come up and she notices the audience, she hangs up the phone and begins talking to those watching. As she packs various items into boxes, she reminisces about them and the memories they evoke.

Westheimer was born Karola Ruth Siegel in Wiesenfeld, Germany, in 1928 into what seems to have been a close, loving Jewish family. Though not religious, she did get early training in Judaism by being taken to synagogue by her father, from whom she learned the lesson of always keeping a smile on her face and never allowing her negative feelings to show on the outside.

Her father was captured by the Nazis when she was 10 years old and taken to a labor camp shortly after Kristallnacht (“night of broken glass” when windows of stores, synagogues and homes were broken in the first night of a series of pogroms). Young Karola was sent to Switzerland under a program called Kindertransport, and thus avoided the fate of her family, all of whom eventually died at Auschwitz.

Life was not great for her in an orphanage in Switzerland and when she was 17, she moved to Palestine, where she lived on a kibbutz. She had her first sexual experience there … and liked it.
She joined the Haganah, part of the Israeli Defense Force, but because she was so short (4-foot-7) she was trained as a scout and a sniper. She was wounded by an exploding shell during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 and it took several months before she could walk again.

The play continues to tell her experience trying to get an education in France and in the United States, where she eventually earned her teaching credential, something she had wanted all of her life.

Her first radio show ran for 15 minutes in 1980 and was immediately so popular that it expanded to an hour. The Dr. Ruth phenomenon was born, and continues to this day, where she still answers questions, but now through her website.

Director Montoya nicely moves Westheimer’s story through her apartment, designed by Alex Polzin. At all times, the audience feels like a visitor listening to a fascinating lady tell her story.

O’Sullivan honors Dr. Ruth and makes her a believable character rather than a caricature.

Some performances will have talk-backs following the show. Our talk-back featured a fascinating Holocaust survivor whose own story was as harrowing, or more so, than Dr. Ruth’s herself. By all means, stay.

The Christians

Kurt Johnson, Darian Dauchan and Greg Alexander perform in
B Street Theatre's production of “The Christians.”
Rudy Meyers Photography/Courtesy photo

If you are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, or any other non-Christian religion or non-religion, you might want to steer clear of B Street’s new show, “The Christians,” by Lucas Hnath, hailed by the New York Times as “one of the freshest play-writing voices to emerge in the past five years.”

The show was apparently the break-out hit of the 2014 Humana Festival of New Plays in Louisville, Kentucky, and has received good reviews Off-Broadway and all across the country.

Though it more than meets the promise of “powerful and thought-provoking,” the piece assumes that everyone accepts the divinity of Jesus Christ and follows the teachings of the Bible.

Pastor Paul (Kurt Johnson) is the head of a church (presumably non-denominational since no specific religion is mentioned), which has grown from a small group into a megachurch, ministering to thousands of believers. He has the smoothness and likeability of a Joel Osteen. He has just paid off the final debt for this beautiful edifice, he announces.

The edifice is, indeed beautiful. Scenic designer Samantha Reno has created a beautiful church altar, with a huge stained-glass window behind a golden arch and side choir stalls in which a dozen unnamed choristers add to the authenticity as they sing several hymns.

There is a lot of talk about emotional distance between the pastor and his flock, only heightened by the use of hand-held microphones throughout the show, even in intimate scenes between the pastor and his wife (Margaret Laurena Kemp).

In an overly long sermon, which began to feel like real “church,” Paul examines an emotional struggle he has been having after hearing a missionary describe a particularly painful experience of violence following a car bombing. After much prayer and study, Paul began to question the concept of “hell” and whether there really was a “hell” that was designed for all non-believers (e.g., Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.) He declares that from now on, his church rejects the concept of hell and would be all-inclusive.

This sets off a terrible division in his congregation, led by associate pastor, Joshua (Darian Dauchan) who adheres to what he believes is the strict interpretation of the scriptures.

Representing the congregants who are upset by the new thinking is one of the choristers, Jenny (Tara Sissom) who asks pointed and very difficult questions about the loss of hell and what that means for people like Hitler. When she dies, will she be in heaven with Hitler?

At first Paul’s financial backer Jay (Greg Alexander) stands by him, but as more and more congregants leave the megachurch to follow Joshua to his newly formed church, Jay also withdraws his support.

Discussion between Paul and wife Elizabeth is very painful and reveals not only cracks in religious beliefs, but in their marriage as well.

There are good dialogs going on in this show, but more and more I began to wonder if there were any non-Christians in the audience and how they felt about it, and I almost felt embarrassed to be sitting there ignoring other religions.

A Christmas Carol

 

It’s hard to imagine what the dour-faced Charles Dickens would think of Buck Busfield’s adaptation of his beloved holiday classic, “A Christmas Carol,” but it’s clear that the audience loved it.

This might more appropriately be titled “Buck Busfield’s A Christmas Carol.” Busfield wrote this version last year for B Street’s little theater, but it has been expanded this year to the larger stage and I think it benefits from having greater space in which to work.

The premise, curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge (Greg Alexander) explains to the audience, is that it’s been 173 years since the story was first penned (as a short story) and he’s been redeemed by hundreds of theaters all over the world every Christmas season and he’s just tired of it. He pooh-poohs the various scenarios he knows so well — Jacob Marley, the spirits, Fezziwig’s shop, Cratchit’s family, yada yada yada.

This year he has a plan to resist it all. He’s going to drink lots and lots of tea and won’t fall asleep, so the spirits can’t come to wake him.

Alexander is assisted by four of B Street’s top actors — John Lamb, Amy Kelly, Kurt Johnson and Tara Sissom — who play all the other characters in the show, and you have to imagine that it looks like “Noises Off” backstage, with so many complicated, quick costume changes.

Director Dave Pierini starts off things off slowly and then the action begins to pick up with the fabulous arrival of Jacob Marley’s ghost and continues forward at an accelerated pace until the zany “intervention” by all of the characters, popping through the many doors at the back of the stage.
It kept the audience howling all through the 90-minute, two-act play.

It seems that though Scrooge does what he can to avoid the story, the characters come unbidden and tell the story anyway. And what gems these characterizations are. Lamb has a particularly difficult time as an accident-prone messenger. He also plays Tiny Tim, shocked at learning of his presumptive fate.

Johnson’s Marley is humorously frightening, and he steps into other roles as well.

Kelly and Sissom start out as two male almsmen, soliciting funds for the poor, and then play many other male and female characters throughout the show. It’s difficult to decide which was the funniest.
Both are top comediennes, though I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Kelly’s ability to transform herself into just about anything of any size, species or gender that she wants — a talent put to good use in this production.

Sissom is always wonderful, especially with the less-than-brilliant characters who are trying to figure life out.

But both are gems, as are their male counterparts.

The center of the action, however, is Alexander, who is bewitched, bothered and bemused as well as adamant as to his wishes, none of which is respected. Alexander is a comedian of the first order and Busfield’s Scrooge is a perfect fit.

Once again, Busfield has given the community something to laugh at (which we sorely need these days), and a loving, albeit twisted, reminder of a beloved holiday classic.

Rikki Tikki Tavi

From left, Anastasia Bonaccorso as Darzee and Catherine Gloria as Rikki Tikki Tavi delight all ages with their performances in the B Street Theatre Family Series’ “The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi.” Rudy Meyers/Courtesy photo

One way to judge the quality of a production performed for children is to check the reaction of the children in the audience.

By that criterion, the B Street Family Series’ new “The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi” adapted from a Rudyard Kipling story by Y York is an unmitigated success.

Checking the children around me, I saw a boy of about 3 in his mother’s lap, riveted to the action. An older boy behind him jumped up and down in glee during a chase scene. Children sitting on the side of the stage sat in rapt attention and applauded enthusiastically.

What’s not to like? It starts with the sumptuous colorful set of an East Indian garden by Samantha Reno. It has multi levels, and interesting things everywhere — plants, rocks, etc. — to engage a child’s attention.

The one-act show also has a lot of good messages about sharing and cooperation, with some information about eating good food, endangered species and simple etiquette, all in a format that does not sound like teaching at all.

The weekend I saw the show, director Lyndsay Burch stepped into the role of Darzee, the tailor bird who claims the garden as her own. (The role is normally played by Anastasia Bonaccorso). Burch was vain and haughty and protective of things that she considered hers and sings a song “Mine, Mine, Mine.” She also established a nice rapport with the children in the audience before the show started.

Into Darzee’s own private paradise bounces Rikki Tikki (Catherine Gloria), a young mongoose who will earn his “Tavi” when he grows up. Gloria is absolutely adorable. Rikki is a bundle of exploding energy, oblivious to anything but joy and happiness in his world, and trying to find a home for himself. The children love his wide-eyed innocence, even as he continues to commit breaches of tailor bird etiquette and exasperate Darzee.

The young mongoose is adopted by Teddy, a young boy played by adult John Lamb. (Lamb later returns as a cobra and is able to create two such different characters, that children are probably hard-pressed to realize it is the same actor in both roles, especially when a very quick costume change is involved.) Teddy is delighted to have a pet, which, he explains, keeps him from being at the bottom of the family food chain.

Amy Kelly is also on hand as Chuchu, the muskrat (very particular that people remember the “musk” part of her name). Kelly is irresistible, with her muskrat overbite. She establishes a friendship with Rikki and teaches him about the dangers of Nag, the feared cobra.

Lamb’s cobra slithers onto the stage in a very believable snake-like fashion, first to hide her eggs and later to do battle with Rikki Tikki, who earns his ”Tavi” in his dealings with Nag.

This is a show that even young children will love, and yet there is enough sophistication that adults will find it enjoyable as well.

The B Street Theatre’s Family Series is California’s only fully professional, resident theater for children. It has made it its mission to introduce children to the wonder of professional theater through the production of original plays and original adaptations of works of literature. Since its first season in 2003, it has presented more than 50 plays for approximately 300,000 children and families.

Speed the Plow

I waited patiently throughout David Mamet’s 80-minute one-act “Speed-the-Plow” now at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, certain that the show itself would give me a clue as to what the title meant. But it didn’t.

After the show, a circle of critics also each admitted that they did not know what it meant either. Aren’t we lucky to be living in the age of Google?

“God speed the plough” comes from a 15th-century work song and was a prayer for prosperity and productivity.

Mamet himself explained that he saw a saying on an old plate — “ ‘Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow.’ This, I knew, was a play about work and about the end of the world, so ‘Speed-the-Plow’ was perfect because not only did it mean work, it meant having to plow under and start over again.”

Mamet took his interpretation to the world of corporate Hollywood, specifically Bobby Gould (Dave Pierini), who has just been made head of production for a major movie studio and a down-on-his-luck colleague Charlie Fox (Kurt Johnson). This satire about the movie business gives the audience a glimpse of how things really work in the art of the Hollywood deal.

Charlie has just had the offer of a lifetime. A big Hollywood star has read one of his scripts and wants to star in the movie. Charlie is there to get Bobby to green-light the project. The two men are positively orgasmic at the bright future they see before them, with this big-name star and this violent prison/action movie. It will be the surefire blockbuster of the season and Bobby’s slump will be over.
There’s just one hitch: The paperwork needs to be finalized by 10 a.m the next day and the head of the studio will be out of town until then. Not to worry, Bobby assures his friend. The deal is as good as done.

Into the meeting comes Bobby’s temporary secretary, Karen (Stephanie Altholz), tall (in those 4-inch spike heels) and impossibly thin, but well proportioned. The men make all sorts of sexist comments about her after she leaves. Charlie bets Bobby $500 that he cannot seduce Karen.

To set the stage, Charlie engages Karen in discussion about plays he is considering and especially one very thick book called “The Bridge or, Radiation and the Half-Life of Society,” which he has been asked to read as a “courtesy,” though the studio has no intention of making it.

In the next scene, Karen comes to Bobby’s house with the thick book liberally marked with dozens of Post-It notes and she raves about the book and how it changed her life. She tries to convince Bobby that Charlie’s play is garbage and that he should produce this play. During the course of the discussion, she becomes the seductress.

In the final scene, a subdued Bobby admits to Charlie that he has changed his mind about which play he is going to green-light. Charles’ reaction and surprising revelations about Karen round out the action and bring the play to its surprising conclusion.

Mamet is known for wordy plays, and for a three-person play that is dialog-driven to work, the actors must be top-notch and the dialog needs to snap, crackle and pop. In this superb production directed by Jerry Montoya, it does just that.

Pierini and Johnson are excellent as the good-old-boy Hollywood mogul types. Pierini is particularly notable for the change from Scene 2 to 3, where his demeanor becomes slow and steady, in opposition to his high spirits of the first two scenes.

Altholz is just great as the not-so-dumb office temp who shows she is capable of doing more than just pouring coffee for the men. Her subtle shift from naive, submissive temp to take-charge seductress is masterful.

This is a first-rate production for the B Street Theatre.

Every Brilliant Thing

Dave Peirini

 The words that strike fear and terror into this critic’s heart are “audience participation.” So I was terrified on entering the B Street Theatre for the one-man show, “Every Brilliant Thing.”

Members of the audience were handed numbered cards and asked to read out what was written on the card when their number was called. I was relieved that I didn’t get a card. (Some people also said no, but most participated.)

But I need not have worried. Actor Dave Peirini is such a likable and friendly guy that this unusual, very funny and poignant play was like sitting in his living room and having a visit.

British playwright Duncan Macmillan, has created a play — which isn’t really a play — that you will recommend to your friends (as I recommend it to you!).

Peirini’s unnamed character tells how he coped with his mother’s depression and many suicide attempts, the first of which occurred when he was 7.

While his mother was in the hospital, he started “The List” on which he attempted to list every thing in this life that made him happy — things as diverse as “ice cream,” “things with stripes” and “thinking about dressing up as a Mexican wrestler.” He felt that by sharing The List with his mother, he could make her happy.

It never did, but he continued keeping The List and leaving bits of paper around the house for her to find. Ultimately he continued the list and wrote a million brilliant things. The project sustained him throughout the most difficult (and joyous) periods of his life.

In addition to reading words when cued, Peirini invited people from the audience to play scenes with him. The show we attended had wonderfully cooperative people. The gentleman playing Peirini’s father, who was then to play Peirini himself while Peirini took the father role, was just to ask “why?” after every comment. He was marvelous, giving a different meaning to the word “why” each time. The conversation took place on the way to the hospital after the first suicide attempt and he gave depth to the confusion of a 7-year-old.

There was also a school counselor, a veterinarian, a teacher and the girl with whom he fell in love. All played their parts well, but the love interest particularly well. She had the longest role.

The narrator is also a great lover of music and fond of playing bits of old vinyl records that I remember from my childhood. I enjoyed hearing the Ink Spots again!

My innate terrors aside, there is nothing uncomfortable about this piece. Everything Peirini does is designed to put the audience, and especially his unsuspecting volunteers at ease.

This is a comedy, but it has its poignant moments too, as when the young boy first learns about death and loss, when his beloved dog had to be put to sleep. The dog is a prop he borrows from someone in the audience.

Anyone who has ever lost someone (or something) loved, or anybody who was ever a lonely kid or felt like an outsider as an adult will find something familiar in this work, directed by Greg Alexander.

And because the script is so cleverly written, we are taken in by Peirini’s pain at his losses, though he puts on a good front. We’re willing to enter into whatever he would like to have us do because we want to be a part of helping him feel better.

“Every Brilliant Thing” is, well, a brilliant thing. You’ll leave the theater thinking that you just spent 90 minutes visiting an old friend.