Playwright: Christopher Durang
At: Oracle Productions, 3809 N. Broadway
Phone: 773-244-2980; $15-$20
Through: Sept. 17
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Comedy is tough. Comedy by out playwright Christopher Durang will give you a black eye if you're not careful.
So it's sad to report that Oracle Productions has lost its bout with Durang's one-two punch of The Actor's Nightmare and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You. It's an inauspicious start for what many are calling 'The Fall of Durang,' with other Chicago-area companies producing at least five different Durang plays this season.
Oracle Productions deserves some credit for facing down this Durang duo which cemented the playwright's status as an anarchic jester. Alas, the combined talents of Oracle's cast under Aaron Shapiro's direction are not up to Durang's challenges.
Presented as a comic confrontation of former Catholic school students who try to embarrass a lecturing nun, Sister Mary… does its utmost to point out the blind spots in Catholics who unquestioningly and rabidly defend their faith to the point of violence.
Sister Mary… definitely needs to be seen now that religious extremism is running rampant overseas and at home. Leading up to Sister Mary... is The Actor's Nightmare, which is little more than a trifle filled with theater insider's jokes about works by Shakespeare, Coward, Beckett and the drama A Man for All Seasons.
Oracle's The Actor's Nightmare flops because we never believe Aaron DeYoung's desperation as George, a terrified accountant thrust as an understudy into multitude shows. Having some knowledge of the shows Durang is spoofing does help, but DeYoung and his too-young colleagues never attain the mock-actor grandeur or nightmare strangeness to make this one act funny.
The integrated film clips by GimpyDog Productions look nice, but they dissipate some of the immediacy of the comedy. All of this technology gets in the way at times, distancing the focus away from the actors.
Sister Mary… comes off better with Maggie Speer in the title role, appropriately stern but not entirely believable when confronted by her embittered former students ( who look too young to have experienced their litany of woes ) . DeYoung and his eager cast also haven't fully mastered Durang's difficult comic timing.
Oracle set designer April Pilarki gets points for finding a way to link these odd bedfellow plays with her twisted and sinister church/theater organ with pipes that contort around the proscenium. Costume designer Nick Subers' sinister organist puppet is also a great unsettling touch.
But Pilarki goes a bit too far with the crucifix-lit podium Sister Mary does her lecturing from ( an unadorned lecturn would have sufficed ) . Also, the overhead projector with Sister Mary's multiple questions doesn't make sense. Would audience members really have scribbled questions down on clear plastic sheets?
Oracle's dust up with Sister Mary… and The Actor's Nightmare isn't pretty, but at least they made the game attempt to take on Durang and his brilliantly difficult brand of comedy. Like all lost battles, Oracle shouldn't let this defeat discourage them from fighting on.