{image1}It's quite simple, really - skip down to the end of this review and call In Tandem for tickets to the final production of their 2004-2005 season, "Wonder of the World". . . What? Still reading? Fine - if you aren't fully persuaded, allow me to give you 12 reasons why you need to run -- not walk -- to the Walker's Point Center for the Arts and see this show:
1. They play The Carpenters before, during and after the show.
2. Flattering Administrative Director, Jane Flieller said, "You are the most attractive audience I've ever seen."
3. Aspic plays a prominent role in the first act.
4. Kate Krenzke, who plays Cass -- a suburban housewife whose life, up until this point in time, mainly consisted of working at the food co-op, participating in her book club and playing Yahtzee with her husband Kip. She delivers debilitating verbal blows to Kip in a voice as sweet as her bubble gum pink sweater. At the same time, her overflowing arsenal of non sequiturs makes any conversation come to a grinding halt.
5. Ken T. Williams' portrayal of husband Kip makes the viewer want to laugh, cry and squirm at the same time. His desperate pleas to Cass, "Why are you making me sad?" alternate with his frustration as he bars the door, shouting "TRY THE F--KING ASPIC!!!"
6. Cheryl Roloff's depiction of the suicidal alcoholic, Lois, who is befriended against her will by Cass on the bus to Niagara Falls, brilliantly illustrates people's blindness to their flaws. She casually mentions, "My husband Ted said I was a bad person because I drank too much and crashed cars." She gives this as much weight as when she asks Cass, "You gonna eat that aspic?"
7. Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's juxtaposition of very real and sobering events, feelings and past histories with out-of-the-blue comments portrays the randomness of people's thought processes, trains of thought, and life in general. After Cass finishes one of her rambling monologues, "I'm your challenger - remember when the Challenger went down?" for example, Lois says, "You need to learn how to segue way."
8. Chris Flieller's versatile set design allows the story to unfold in all kinds of locations -- from Kip driving in the car, silently weeping to The Carpenters, to the deck of the Maid of the Mist -- a tourist boat at Niagara Falls. The primitive white-and-grey-streaked walls symbolize the roaring falls and, to the left, a Maid of the Mist life preserver hangs on the wall behind an elevated wooden steering podium, complete with "S.S. Minnow"-style steering wheel and wooden-handled cord hanging from the ceiling.
9. Allison Phillips, however, is truly the Jack/Jackie of all trades, playing everyone from a female pattern baldness sufferer, Barbara, to an androgynous helicopter pilot battling a fear of heights to three different waitresses in various theme-restaurants. Kip shrinks back in horror when she arrives as Janie the therapist who didn't have time to change clothes from her part-time job as a clown. He claims that he "has an irrational fear of clowns" to which she holds a knife to his throat and responds, "That'll make more sense when I cut off your head and feed it to my monkey."
10. Christopher John Jennings provides the audience some eye candy with his uncanny resemblance to Chris O'Donnell in a captain's uniform. "Grrrrowl!"
11 & 12. Veteran actors Edward Carroll and Gladys Chmiel, who play former-yarn-shop-proprietors-turned-private investigators Karla and Glen, keep everyone on their toes. When Glen blows their cover, for example, "I'm a really bad liar," Karla threatens, "I'm gonna kick the s--t out of you."
If you are still reading this, you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to wet yourself with laughter for a couple hours at Wonder of the World.
"Wonder of the World" plays through June 12 at the Walker's Point Center for the Arts. Call (414) 444-2316 for tickets.
