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(Back from left to right) Jim Foreman, Maurice Hall, Judy Parker, Tim Dougherty, (front) Sue Rasche

 Cliffhanger Falls Short at Emerald City Players

by Danielle Filas

If Shakespeare had rewritten Macbeth as a comedy, casting his most famous devious couple as a second-rate, elderly ethics professor and his tea-serving, old money wife, the Bard might have written James Yaffe’s Cliffhanger, now playing with Dublin’s Emerald City Players.  

The script, laden with lightly sketched stock characters, does not pretend to be much more than a silly farce.  Henry and Polly Lowenthal (Tim Dougherty and Judy Parker), a charming Cole-Porter-loving couple become swept up in an unexpected moment of violence with the dour department chair, Edith Wilshire (Sue Rasche).  This act leads them to meet predictable personalities: a smarmy Eddie Haskell-esque student, Melvin McMullen (Jim Foreman), and the worn neighborhood cop, Dave DeVito (Maurice Hall).  The mix of wacky characters and convoluted situational comedy leads to obvious zany hijinks.

Unfortunately, though ECP advertises the play as a mystery thriller, the familiar characters and predictable plot twists beg to be treated more like a quirky slapstick, than a true cliffhanger.  Under Linda Sopp’s confused direction, the play and its actors labor throughout most of the script, plodding through heavy-handed exposition with a lazy lack of urgency, even as the tension should be mounting.  The director’s notes in the program belie Sopp’s perplexing approach.  Not only does Sopp fail to credit her first paragraph from Mel Gussow’s 1985 New York Times review of the play, she admits an attachment to the genre of the mystery/thriller.  Too bad this script works better as a satire of that genre.

Luckily, Sopp uses a team of smart designers. For example, Kathy Sturm’s  clever set design provides a luscious playground, dividing the stage between the warm living room and the cozy pantry.  Act 2 makes best use of this design, allowing the audience to enjoy the laughable contrast of two characters’ pantomimed struggle in the pantry, as Polly and the detective politely converse in the living room.  Sadly, Sopp doesn’t always cash in on Sturm’s set, often blocking actors upstage, hidden behind furniture, or simply seated- offering talking heads where there should be physical comedy.

The enthusiastic cast, too, does its best to breathe life into Yaffe’s work.  Although Dougherty struggles to recall his lines at times, his Henry Lowenthal still manages to find some great reactive moments- especially in the scenes with the cop and his wife.  Rasche devours her small role, commanding the stage with her impressive height and throaty voice.  As the baffled detective, Hall brings an easy likability to his role.  Foreman probably comes closest to hitting the right farcical tone, bringing easy physical humor to the mix.  Parker, however, wins over the audience within her first few lines, using a delivery not unlike Betty White in Golden Girls- if Rose had been an bloodthirsty criminal.  “It’s not that I don’t like her, dear,” quips a deadpan Parker about the odious Edith Wilshire, “It’s just that she’s a bitch.”

Emerald City Players, usually a reliable source of professional quality entertainment, has slipped a bit with this production.  Still, the few moments of comedic gold shine brightly enough make for a fairly pleasant evening of live theatre.  

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Danielle Filas serves as a contributing editor to Theatre Vault. She recently moved from Chicago and holds Theatre degrees from Northwestern University and Knox College. You can visit her personal blog by clicking here.

               

(Left to right) Tim Dougherty, Sue Rasche, Judy Parker

Emerald City Brings Big Laughs with Cliffhanger 

by Tahrea Maynard

Emerald City Players’ Cliffhanger, directed by Linda Sopp, proves to be more farcical mayhem than mystery. This show, set in a small college town in 1985, centers on the charming household of Ethics Professor Henry Lowenthal (Tim Dougherty) and his devoted wife Polly (Judy Parker). Throughout this production the couple is presented with several ethical quandaries, meeting each with a comedic flair that makes the evening quite enjoyable. In this reviewer’s opinion, Dougherty and Parker do well playing husband and wife, though there are times where the mild-mannered action and inflection do not always do the lines justice.  The Lowenthal household becomes disrupted by Melvin McMullen, an unusual college student, performed well by Jim Foreman. Foreman makes use of facial expressions and physical comedy in his portrayal of the mysteriously disturbed McMullen.  

The rest of the five person cast is made up of equally talented and entertaining characters.  Sue Rasche, who plays the vindictive and conniving Edith Wilshire, chairwoman of the local college’s philosophy/ethics department, truly creates a character you love to hate.  Last but certainly not least, Maurice Hall does quite well as Dave Devito, an honest man of the law, looking for answers to several questions that arise from the bizarre chaos.  Hall adds the slight tone of professional seriousness one expects from a member of the law enforcement, but, like the rest of the cast, finds that added hint of comedy to keep the dialogue going.

This production not only boasts a great cast, but a fantastically built set. All of the action takes place within the quaint and simply clean living room and kitchen/pantry of the Lowenthal household. The set, well furnished with and dressed with little personal touches, includes details and properties that transform the stage in such a way leads the audience members to believe that they have, indeed, stepped into the Lowenthal household. Such a detailed set could only be created by an equally fantastic set crew, consisting of set designer Kathy Sturm and crew members Jim Sturm, Rick Foster, Tony Love and Ken Scott.

One unfortunate note about Cliffhanger is the apparent use of microphones in such a small space. Although the choice presumably has been made in order to cater to older audience members, the small space makes the cast equally understandable without such technology, especially given the quality of the performers. Instead, several odd bumps and clinks picked up by the stage mics sometimes distract from the action.

Despite this odd downfall, Cliffhanger will leave audience members, including this reviewer, with a smile and a perhaps few laughter pains.

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Tahrea Maynard has spent the majority of her life onstage, appearing on stages with such Central Ohio theatres as Roundtown Players and Rosebriar Shakespeare Co. She also teaches Musical Theatre classes with the Charmion Performing Arts Center in Circleville.  Check out her blogs here and here.