Reviewed by Tony Annicone
The opening show of the Arctic Playhouse’s new season is “Sister Mary Ignatius/The Actor’s Nightmare” by Christopher Durang. They are two one act companion piece plays. Sister Mary Ignatius, a teaching nun who is more concerned with sin in all its various forms, delivers a cautionary lecture to her charges. One of them can quote the Ten Commandments on cue, and each time he does so Sister Mary rewards him with a cookie. But when several of her former students turn up the picture darkens, along with Sister Mary’s indignation. They confess the various paths their lives have taken after leaving her class and teachings. Sister highly disapproves their transgressions and a highly volatile and shocking conclusion to their meeting occurs. One of them is an unmarried mother of an illegitimate child, another is a homosexual, another is a woman who was raped on the night her mother died from cancer and the last one is an alcoholic who is suicidal. “The Actor’s Nightmare”, involves an accountant named George Spelvin, who is mistaken for an actor’s understudy and forced to perform in a play for which he doesn’t know any of the lines. He is dressed as Hamlet but then the show keeps changing from “Private Lives” to “Hamlet” and Beckett plays to “A Man for All Seasons” with a surprising realistic twist to it. Director Christopher Plonka casts these roles wonderfully, giving his 7 member cast the insight into these comic but deeply flawed characters to not only entertain you but to enlighten you along the way, too.
Mary Paolino delivers a tour de force performance as Sister Mary Ignatius. She delivers an enormous 40 minute monologue while speaking directly to the audience. Mary is strict in her lecture but comical at the same time, winning sustained laughter all night long. Her transformation into a tigress at the end of the show by keeping the intruders at bay is hilarious as is her doting on the seven year old prize student, Thomas wonderfully played by Nico Marschat. Another standout performer in this piece is Meg Taylor-Roth who delivers an impassioned speech about how her character felt abandoned by God when her mother was dying of cancer and how she had abortions after being raped on the night her mother died and the second when her therapist had sex with her. This is where this comic piece takes a dramatic turn. Olivia Sahlin plays the unwed mother who is a dumb blonde excellently but she shows great emotion at Meg’s poignant speech with tears in her eyes. She and Jeff Blanchette play a comic Camel who helps Mary and Joseph deliver Jesus in the stable. Jeff plays the alcoholic father who never was allowed to go to the bathroom and wet the floor at school because the nun never let him go to the bathroom. Mario Sasso also delivers the goods in the Nativity skit as St. Joseph as well as when he tells Sister that he slept with 500 men.
Jeff Blancette commands the stage as George Spelvin in “The Actor’s Nightmare.” From the first entrance as this befuddled, confused man who proclaims he is just an accountant not an actor, he delivers a well nuanced performance. As he moves from play to play from “Private Lives” to “Hamlet” to “Waiting for Godot” to Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons”, he shines at each transformation by calling for line, never knowing the dialogue or whether it’s a monologue for the character which he mixes up constantly in this absurdist play. Victoria Ezikovich is a hoot as Amanda in the Noel Coward play by repeating her lines over again until he delivers the right line and slapping his face when he tries to unzip her dress. Olivia plays the stage manager who enters now and again to feed George his lines in an inaudible whisper. Mario plays Horatio in “Hamlet” and the Executioner in “Man for All Seasons”, delivering a powerful performance as both characters as does Meg who plays Sybil in “Private Lives” and a character in a garbage can in the Beckett play. She urges George to play the death scene as Thomas More to the climatic conclusion. So for a riotous night of comic antics with some serious undertones, be sure to catch “An Evening of Christopher Durang” at Arctic Playhouse. Also enjoy their free cookies, popcorn and coffee while watching these entertaining shows.
SISTER MARY IGNATIUS/THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE (22 February to 10 March)
The Arctic Playhouse, 117 Washington Street, West Warwick, RI
1(401)573-3443 or www.thearcticplayhouse.com
