Playwright: Christopher Durang
At: Infamous Commonwealth Theatre at Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark
Phone: 312-458-9780; $8-$15
Through: Oct. 1
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Why is Infamous Commonwealth Theatre producing Betty's Summer Vacation? Summer is basically over. And—let's face it—many of the show's fresh pop culture punchlines are now past their sell-by dates.
Yet don't let an occasionally stale whiff of 1999 name-dropping keep you from enjoying a still-relevant Betty's Summer Vacation. Out playwright Christopher Durang cooked up this scathing sitcom-styled comedy to attack America's prurient and instant-gratification obsessions with tabloid gossip, sex and murder. Durang also skewers our culture of assigning blame, particularly when traumatic childhoods are used as excuses for horrific deeds.
Typically unquestioned TV sitcom stereotypes are sharply subverted in Betty's Summer Vacation. Outrageously rude and oversexed characters may be funny in half-hour increments, but Durang shows the horrors of what might happen if you encountered these one-note people in real life.
Then there's that omnipresent sitcom laugh track that intrudes on poor Betty and her nightmarish roommates in their time-share beach house. We usually don't mind laugh tracks on TV, but how would you cope with an annoying one talking back to you in your ceiling?
Infamous Commonwealth reasonably handles Durang's firecracker satire well without suffering major burns. Director Joanie Schultz and her cast haven't fully mastered Durang's notoriously difficult comedy style, but they hit more often than not.
As Betty, Erica Peregrine does her required job of being the comic and moral 'straight' woman to contrast against the play's demented weirdoes. And what a rogue's gallery they are.
Nancy Friedrich is brilliant as the mousy jabbering friend Trudy. Her comic baby-talk voice is dead-on duplication of many a sitcom sidekick, which makes for quite a shock when her disturbing childhood past is revealed.
Jennifer Mathews could bring a touch more of angry and speedy maliciousness to Trudy's cheerily co-dependent Auntie Mame-like mother Mrs. Siezmagraff. One also wishes Joshua Shulruff was beefier and more laconic to believably embody the sex-crazed Buck ( who proudly shows off his 'dick-pics' photo album to a horrified Trudy ) .
Mat Labotka is appropriately unhinged as the Jeffrey Dahmer-like murderer, while Paul Joseph is truly seedy as the sexually aggressive flasher and tramp Mr. Vanislaw. ( Now, if only his prone-to-open raincoat didn't destroy the illusion that his character is truly naked underneath. )
Rounding out this hard-working ensemble are Nick Brenner, Marjorie Armstrong and Joe Ciresi as the laugh-track Voices who embody the worst kind of TV studio audiences. ( Think Married… With Children, but individually more crass. )
While Betty's Summer Vacation's frequent 1990s name-dropping ( like serial gay killer Andrew Cunanan and Donald Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples ) diminishes it as a 'period piece,' it remains a shuddering and culturally relevant laugh riot. Audiences who aren't too media-savvy might be confused and put off by Betty's Summer Vacation, but for fans of Durang's anarchic humor, this is definitely one not to miss.