Playwright: Woody Allen
At: Noble Fool Theatre, 16 W. Randolph St. Phone: (312) 726-1156; $32-$36
Runs through: Aug. 2
In the wake of the patriotism we are told is sweeping our nation, exhuming this Cold War comedy might have sounded like a good
idea. But when you invoke the specter of Good Old Ammurrrican Values, undiluted by nostalgic revisionism, you also risk resurrecting
aspects of our culture we in 2003 would rather forget.
Both the play's title and premise reflect their period's xenophobic mindset: called away from office temporarily, the United States
Ambassador to an unnamed country behind the Iron Curtain has left his noodnik son in charge, little guessing that in his absence, the
ugliest American since Archie Bunker will demand protection for himself and his family. It's a misunderstanding, of course. Walter
Hollander has accidentally photographed some high-security sites, arousing the suspicions of Police Inspector Krojack. The
ambassador pro-tem is forced to grant the Hollanders sanctuary in the embassy, freeing Walter to insult high foreign officials, while
Mrs. Hollander housecleans the chambers and hot-to-trot daughter Susan flirts with their hapless host.
Chekhov poked fun at commoners. British playwrights ridicule the middle classes. Woody Allen makes his Top Buffoon a caterer
from New Jersey. When an audience is composed near-exclusively of an elite demographic as parochial as those they would mock,
oafishness is easy to assign. Nowadays, however, our values are not as homogenous and even comic characters must win
sympathies on their own merits—not an easy task for stock types too often assumed to be still popular, but in fact, as outdated and
alien as Ma and Pa Kettle.
Faced with inadequate time for the text analysis necessary to re-tailor period comedies to modern sensibilities (as with Noble
Fool's recent Mirandolina), director Steve Scott attempts to render the action so silly as to merit no serious thought, layering on comic
business in copious quantities executed with athletic precision. But Paul Connell's Walter has no salt-of-the-earth wisdom to redeem
his jingoistic pronouncements, nor is Jesse Weaver's nebbish sufficiently lovable for us to cheer him on. Ironically, the most engaging
personality is Mark Czoske's Inspector Krojack, whose immersion into his character strikes the perfect note in a universe resembling
that of a live-action Bugs Bunny cartoon.