By: Jeff Whipple. At: Sliced Bread Productions with Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston. Phone: 773-539-7838; $10-$20. Runs through: June 29
Murphy's Law runs rampant throughout Spokesperson, a world-premiere satire by artist/playwright Jeff Whipple for Sliced Bread Productions and Prop Thtr.
First, all the fish in Lake Haven die overnight. Then all the ducks and waterfowl expire. Then a mysterious green pox strikes one of the residents.
When suburban residents and the news media start pointing fingers at the nearby chemical plant, a public-relations professional named Candy is deployed to deflect the criticism. Candy is so on-topic with prepared talking points that she refuses to entertain the slightest notion that her employer could be responsible.
Whipple admits in the program that he was inspired to write Spokesperson based upon his own experience at seeing an attractive spokeswoman for a strip-mining company spin her employer's interests to the news media. That fascination of how someone could willingly become the public face for an environmentally dubious company sets the tone for Spokesperson.
So, as things go haywire for Candy ( the media twists her sound bites and environmentalists play nasty pranks on her ) , it seems that Whipple wants us to feel schadenfreude rather than empathy for Candy, even when Candy's personal and professional lives suffer nasty meltdowns.
Though Whipple is spot on with his jabs at sensationalist TV media ( Kelly Owens is hilarious as the polished reporter whose only concern is good TV footage ) , the misfortunes piled upon Candy feel like sour grapes—revenge on a target Whipple can't reach in real life. So even if Whipple adds some flaws for the environmentalists and Lake Haven residents in this satire, Spokesperson doesn't go the distance since it's a one-sided expulsion of sarcastic anger rather than an honest examination of a PR spokesperson's genuine motivations during a moral crisis.
At least director Wm. Buillion keeps everything in Spokesperson moving at a fun and speedy surface level ( though a trim or two could help ) .
Jenn Remke is great as the ambitious spokesperson who starts out corporately polished and ends up disillusioned and disheveled ( watching Remke react to her vibrating cell phone is also a comic delight ) . The rest of the cast does a good job playing up surface-caricatured roles, from Jonathan Cofield's slimy corporate manager to Gordon Gillespie's outraged Lake Haven resident.
As the environmentalist Andy, Mackenna Murphy is given more to chew ( though his character's attraction for Candy is questionable, dramatically ) . As the pox-afflicted Lucy, Gilmary Doyle-Andrews does her part to lay on the guilt ( though their interactions, as penned by Whipple, wouldn't be likely in real life ) .
But then again, Spokesperson is a satire of comic pessimism. Even if isn't fully satisfying, it does provide a few laughs at the expense of people we secretly would like to see suffer.