THEATRE REVIEW:
KPBS AIRDATE: December 02, 2005
If you didn’t learn your catechism earlier this year,
you’re outta luck. While “Late Night Catechism,” which made several hilarious
return visits to North Coast Repertory Theatre, was often laugh-yourself-silly,
its holiday sequel is a disappointingly dim bulb. Guess you can’t go home again
– even on Christmas.
“Sister’s Christmas Catechism: The Mystery of the
Magi’s Gold” is written by half the duo that created the original, which has
become a nationwide cash-cow. This time, Maripat Donovan teamed with Marc
Silvia and Jane Morris – a much less felicitous collaboration. At North Coast
Rep, the show is performed, at least on some nights, by the same person I’ve
already seen twice in the show’s first incarnation –Kathryn Gallagher, who’s
competent and comical. But it’s a long way from the cackling Catholic school
class of before; this one’s overly repetitive, didactic, amateurish and
unfunny. Unless you get a terrific kick out of watching your friends and
neighbors stumble up onstage to look ridiculous draped in schmattas for a nativity tableau, there must be somewhere else you
could get your fill of novelty crèches and carols.
How about seeing something with a little more heft
this season? “The Sum of Us,” by David Stevens, is an often-amusing drama about
love – of the sexual, platonic and filial kind. Jeff and his widowed Dad are
both lonely and looking for romance. But while Harry is seeking Ms. Companion,
his son is searching for Mr. Right. Under Douglas Lay’s assured direction, the
humor is high and the action doesn’t dip too often into melodrama.
The cast does an excellent job of drawing us into
this airless world of blue collar Aussies. Unfortunately, the playwright
insists on distancing us every time we become absorbed, forcing the actors to
break the fourth wall and address us directly, sometimes mid-conversation. It’s
an annoying structural conceit in an otherwise realistic, kitchen-sink drama,
though the actors handle it with aplomb – and the technique is quite effective
in the play’s final moments.
Some might find it a tad disconcerting, as I did,
that only three of the four performers attempt Australian accents. But the
acting trumps all flaws; the two main characters are finely etched and
convincingly portrayed. Brennan Taylor is lovable and adorable as the shy,
insecure son, and Dale Morris is robust and a little randy as his sympathetic
if overly intrusive father. Matt Weeden and Jenni Prisk are vigorous and
credible as their tentative love interests. At heart, “The Sum” is a
sentimental tale of father-son expectations and interactions, sprinkled with
scattered speechifying on acceptance of self and others. The play proves the
perfect counterpart to “Adam Baum and the Jew Movie,” the provocatively-titled,
excellently acted drama that runs at 6th @ Penn on alternate nights.
So skip the nunsense and grab yourself a mindful,
heartful holiday.
©2005 Patté Productions
Inc.