Comic relief for a cold
COVID winter’s evening
Dramatis Personae streams a delightful six-pack of comedy in Unmute Me!
By Byron Toben
January 15, 2022
Dramatis Personae, the Westmount Community Theatre, unable to stage their winter show in person at their usual Victoria Hall home, has taken to Zoom to present a six-pack of witty playlets by prolific New Yorker Rich Orloff.
Rich Orloff – Image: richorloff.com
The evening led off with Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson. I have a personal connection with this piece. Some years ago, on a trip to Manhattan, I saw its premiere performed, fittingly, on the roof of a Greenwich Village building. Taking notes, as is my wont, aroused the curiosity of the person sitting by chance alongside me. Turns out that he was Rich Orloff, the playwright himself. I soon after learned that he was a king of ultra-short plays (although he has penned over a dozen full-length plays as well).
In this work, a drama teacher (Karen Sauder) is working on a script with a jumper high atop a building (George Karpuzas) interacting with a passing good Samaritan below (Anna Gamsa), to improvise dialogue should he or should he not, with results to the teacher’s consternation.
In Eve And Adam: The Untold Story, Rich Orloff visits the biblical story of the first couple, which theatrically has been dramatized by G. Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain and Canadians Paul Van Dyke and Erin Shields.
Dramatis Personae, the Westmount Community Theatre, unable to stage their winter show in person at their usual Victoria Hall home, has taken to Zoom to present a six-pack of witty playlets by prolific New Yorker Rich Orloff.
A Narrator (Ann Elbourne) introduces God (Anna Gamsa) herself who warns Eve (Andrea Kruger) and Adam (Rashed Chowdhury) who, in this switch, was born from Eve’s rib cage, not to eat that Apple of Wisdom. But Adam (not any serpent here) entices her to do so and, so long Eden.
Latest News From the Primordial Ooze balances a biblical creation story with Darwin and evolution. One swamp critter, Barry (Malcolm McRae), develops fingers from fins and feels destined to crawl on the beach, while his partner critter Marjorie (Ellen Rubin) is happy where they are and lists the dangers of sand and earth. Will they evolve together or be forever separated?
In Total Spiritual, an interviewer (Linda Nourse), replacing the Angel Gabriel, decides in a bureaucratic style who goes to Heaven or Hell. An applicant (Christine Dandurand) is interviewed while a former applicant (Karen Sauder) is in Limbo in the background, bailing out buckets of saltwater from a lake of tears.
Summer always follows spring. In Prague Summer, the aftermath of the famous Prague Spring of 1968, when Soviet armed forces crushed the Czechoslovakian uprising, is discussed by participants with differing views – Ladislav (Rashed Chowdhury), Xavier (Christopher Moore) and Zelda (Jenepher Chopra).
In the closing playlet of the evening, Sorry, You’ve Got My Wrong Number, inspired by the 1948 classic film Sorry, Wrong Number, a crippled elder lady (Ann Elbourne) overhears on her party line a conversation where two killers are soon to invade her apartment and kill her and her cat, Kitty. The entire cast of Unmute Me! joins in to portray cops, bad guys and telephone operators as she tries to alert the police to little avail. With overtones of Dragnet and corny ads of that era.
‘Hopefully, the troupe will find other of Orloff’s plays in future. They seem often suited to community theatre which likes to distribute roles evenly to the entire cast.’
Other comments
The whole evening was ably directed by Alex Goldrich, filling in for usual director Chris Moore, on hiatus, but appearing in two roles as an actor above.
The technical arrangements to present the show on Zoom were handled by Dramatis Personae stalwart Malcolm McRae, in addition to his acting roles, and Virtual Stage Manager Stephen Maclean Rogers of To The Hilt Productions.
As usual, Roger Jochym’s skills in music research and sound production added a final touch to this polished production.
Hopefully, the troupe will find other of Orloff’s plays in future. They seem often suited to community theatre which likes to distribute roles evenly to the entire cast.
Unmute Me!, which opened on January 13, continues at 8 pm until January 16.
Tickets are available at app.simplyk.io
Feature image: courtesy of Dramatis Personae
More articles from Byron Toben
Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.
There are no comments
Add yours