The Public Theatre’s current production of Tom Stoppard’s “Rough Crossing” is a good choice for light entertainment, especially for a script that’s filled with puns and a slew of silly characters and unending silliness. The script reaches for every cheap gag possible, allowing for the actors to revel in nonsense and outrageous overacting.
The story takes place on the S.S. Italian Castle cruise ship in the 1930s where a playwright, a lyricist and a composer are trying to finish up a show that neither they nor their lead actors find particularly satisfying.
There are stormy seas when the composer, Adam (Dan Schultz), who suffers from an unusual speech impediment, overhears his fiance and the show’s leading lady, Natasha (Robyne Parrish), ending her secret love affair with leading man, Ivor (J.T. O’Connor). In a plot twist that rivals any you’ve seen in a TV sitcom, playwright Turai (David Davalos) and his gal, Gal (Laura Poe), hatch a scheme to convince Adam that the couple were merely rehearsing the lines to a new ending for the play and not revealing details of a secret tryst.
The first act has some genuinely funny lines and scenes, but there are times when the humor wears thin, especially with repetitive gags that lose their punch after the third, fifth or tenth time around. The second act improves a bit when the leading couple rehearses the “play within a play” designed to convince Adam that his betrothed was never having an affair. And while I enjoyed most of the show, the action sometimes fell flat with its predictability and its attempt to be much funnier than it actually is.
Parrish and O’Connor are wonderfully melodramatic as the leading couple, while Davalos portrays the perfectly uptight artist who’s ready to come unhinged before seeing his play completed. Poe is always funny in her supporting role, throwing one-liners into the action while she eats snacks nonstop through the show.
Schultz turns in an amusing performance as he battles his delayed-speech problem that takes him several seconds to respond to questions, if he’s able to respond at all. The speech problem prompts some of the show’s funnier moments.
Public Theatre newcomer Jonathan Fielding is a welcome surprise as the ship steward, Dvornichek, who portrays a combination of oddball humor, strange assorted sight gags, and impossibly silly one-liners. He’s a steward without his sea legs before the ship even leaves the harbor. He’s bizarre but fun.
Compliments are in order to the set designer, Michael Reidy, who packs the Public Theatre stage with a wallop of a set that brings you the outside decks and staterooms of the cruise ship and the insides of a vast performing room inside the vessel. There’s not much room for elaborate sets in this theater, but Reidy manages to pack every space with an impressive package.
And high compliments go to the director, Janet Mitchko, who continues to illuminate The Public Theatre stage whether tackling drama, mystery or a voyage on the high seas.
If all you want is light entertainment and not much more, “Rough Crossing” could be a nice springtime journey.
This show runs through May 15 with evening and matinee performances. For ticket information, call 782-2211.
Dan Marois is owner and producer of Main Street Entertainment and Mystery for Hire. He welcomes reader comments at [email protected].
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