Playwright: Les Enfants Terribles. At: Red Tape Theatre at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 621 W. Belmont. Contact: www.redtapetheatre.org; $15-$20. Runs through Aug. 14
You've got to admire the pluck of the artsy comedy performance troupe Les Enfants Terribles, now performing Prom Night! courtesy of host Red Tape Theatre at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.
Stuffed into earthen-colored leotards with often obscene padded bulges, the actors of Les Enfant Terribles certainly look like they're suffering for their art. With faces smeared in makeup and dripping with sweat, these actors do achieve their uncomforting first impression as odd band of alien-like creatures eager to explore our world.
Alas, Les Enfants Terribles put more work into its elaborate Prom Night! production design and costumes instead of its largely wordless script. This makes the hour-long Prom Night! feel like a wasted opportunityespecially when there is so much potential in its premise.
Things begin conventionally enough in the pre-show where the gorgeous prom night committee members ( Ryan Lempka and Amanda Beth Miller as student coordinators and Jonathan Helvey as photographer ) gently prod audiences to dance along and pose for prom pictures on a large wooden crescent moon ( set designer Shaun Renfro should save the materials and rent them out legitimately for high school dances ) .
Then Les Enfants Terribles arrive, scaring away the pretty people as they try to make sense of their white and blue pastel surroundings. As Les Enfants Terrible, Scott Ray Merchant, Casey Kells, Alex Kyger, Christopher Paul Mueller, Brian Rad and Eric Ryan Swanson do succeed at unsettling and possibly grossing out the audience.
But stage director Keland Scher and the company members of Les Enfants Terrible don't produce nearly enough physical gags, props or movement to truly sustain interest in the show. These creatures also inexplicably burst into song with harmonies and nicely annunciated lyrics. ( Perhaps they absorbed them from radio broadcasts beamed into outer space. )
Then there's the unconvincing matter of the prom committee returning periodically try to ward off Les Enfants Terrible. Structurally they should disappear completely or be taken hostage throughout to be more plausible. The current scenario just makes you wonder why they just didn't call the police to intervene.
If Les Enfants Terrible wants to stick around as a themed performance troupe on the level of, say, 500 Clown or Blue Man Group, it's going to have to build stronger physical shows or memorable characterizations that what they're displaying in Prom Night!
Right now Prom Night! plays like a promising conceptual exercise in story and performance art. But as true comedy entertainment, it's lacking.