Barn fills need for laughs with 'Two Into One'
If you happened to be driving on M-96 Tuesday night through Augusta , you might have heard a sound that hasn't made its way to the road in a long time: laughter.
Audiences roared so loudly at the antics and madcap confusion in "Two Into One," the second show of the Barn Theatre's 59th season, that the noise of guffaws and high-spirited cackling shook the building and surely thundered forth to the road beyond.
Arguably the funniest show staged in the last two years, "Two Into One" is just another in a long line of hilarious farces by British scribe Ray Cooney produced at the Barn, including "Not Now Darling" (1997), "Funny Money" (1996), "It Runs In the Family" (2000), "There Goes the Bride" (2001) and "Caught in the Net" (2002).
Like those exceptional comedies, "Two Into One" relies on lies, misunderstandings and cover-ups to generate laughs. It also features a staple of the farce genre: the multi-door scenario. Characters pop in and out of six different doors as they try to "suss out" (as the Brits would say) the awful mess they have fallen into this time.
Like all farces, the howling laughter cannot start until the story unfolds, as the characters spin lie after lie to cover up the truth. In this tale, Richard Willey (Joe Aiello) enlists the aid of George Pigden (Scott Burkell) to book a room at the Westminster Hotel, London -- in addition to the one he's sharing with his wife -- for a rendezvous with the delicious Jennifer Bristow (Maura Hurley).
Unaccustomed to such a ruse, George bumbles through the deception, creating the wrong false identity for himself, which generates complicated misunderstandings with Richard and Jennifer, and then throwing himself at Willey's wife Pamela (Penelope Alex) to keep her from learning the truth of her husband's infidelity.
From this beginning, the stories George spins become more and more ridiculous as he must keep the truth from a nosy Chinese waiter (Eric Petersen), a chambermaid (Rachel Simpson), the hotel manager (Howard McBride), Parliamentary member Lily Chatterton (Dusty Reeds) and eventually Bristow's husband Edward (Eric Parker), as well as Pamela and Richard.
The resulting story produces side-splitting, thunderous laughter from the audience, which would not be possible in the hands of less experienced, less talented performers. Burkell, Aiello, and Alex have worked together for so many years that their timing and chemistry create hysterics with a kind of hypnotic magic. But the best treat of the show is not their wonderful renderings but the work of residents of the Barnie company.
Eric Petersen is unquestionably one of the most talented of the Barnie crew. A favorite of the bar shows this year and last, Petersen shows off his range, playing to stereotype as the Chinese waiter and yet bringing surprising twists and details to the role.
Likewise, Rachel Simpson, who also has been hidden in the background outside the bar shows, tarts up the chambermaid role with titillating alacrity. But of the apprentice performers, it's Maura Hurley as Jennifer Bristow who demonstrates some really hidden talent as the sultry, lingerie-draped sexpot wife ready for afternoon hanky-panky with the number two man of the Prime Minister's office.
Dusty Reeds, Eric Parker and Howard McBride all turn in performances of the consistent quality Barn patrons expect. Audiences even applauded for complex turning and rolling sets by Andris Krumkalins that must change the scene from hotel lobby to the sixth floor several times during the show.
But the most puzzling thing about the performance of "Two Into One" were all the empty seats. Usually packing the house for musicals people have seen dozens of times, like the next-up "Guys and Dolls," the Barn was not full to capacity for a show so funny that it should come with a medical warning for people with weak hearts.
Not getting enough laughs off rerun TV? Down in the dumps about the news? The Barn has the cure: "Two Into One." Fill those seats.
Christopher Tower of Richland reviews theater and teaches at Western Michigan University .
The Grand Rapids Press
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
By Sue Merrell
Who says "Two Into One" won't go? It goes like gangbusters at Augusta 's Barn Theatre.
Actually, the Ray Cooney farce reminded me of an elaborate shell game, with 10 characters shuffling in and out of 10 doors, over two sets, until you actually lose track of who's behind which door. And it's all done with that practiced, sleight-of-hand timing that makes even the set change seem like part of the fun.
The cast of Barn veterans, including Scott Burkell, Joe Aiello and Penelope Alex, could hold the audience's laughter for a minute or more with just a shocked, open mouth or smug smile. But the best bits feature split-second timing such as a waiter's tray that goes flying and is caught without spilling a drop.
Plot and character development never matter much in fast-paced farces, but, basically, this is the story of Richard Willey, a member of Parliament who asks his secretary, George, to reserve a room for a tryst with the prime minister's secretary, Jennifer. Predictably, Richard's wife, Pamela, decides to forgo a theater matinee because she believes George wants a rendezvous with her; Jennifer's husband returns early from skiing, and the hotel staff gets terribly confused.
To make everything funnier, Parliament is working on a pornography bill that provides fodder for plenty of Cooney's double-entendres.
As Mr. and Mrs. Willey, Joe Aiello and Penelope Alex open the play with snooty, upper-crust scowls on their faces. Alex has a teasing, playful side from the beginning, but Aiello's character runs the gamut from a reserved snob to an angry boss to drugged outbursts of hysteria.
As George, Burkell wins the audience with his character's nervous titter, but he brought down the house with his physical comedy, such as pretending to slip or getting hopelessly tied up in his clothes.
The script, which is set during Margaret Thatcher's term, makes no attempt to be politically correct, with exaggerated stereotypes of a Chinese waiter and a Spanish maid and many quips against gays. Nevertheless, the waiter character is so funny we can't help but laugh.
The two-and-a-half-hour play moves incredibly fast, but still it is probably a half-hour too long. After a while, the situations begin to feel redundant.
Andris Krumkalns has designed a set that revolves from hotel lobby to adjoining hotel rooms. The transition is so smooth that Tuesday's opening-night audience of about 400 applauded the set change.
"Two Into One" may be mathematically impossible, but, theatrically, it's a thoroughly entertaining evening of continuous laughter.
'Two Into One' fun, but not Cooney's best
Kalamazoo Gazette
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
By Elizabeth Clark
Special to the Gazette
AUGUSTA -- Try to put two into one and you wind up with a fraction.
Ray Cooney's farce "Two Into One" seems aptly about half as funny as most of the British playwright's works. The play's opening night at Augusta 's Barn Theatre Tuesday brings a good bit of belly-laughs, but less consistent guffaws than some other Cooney gems the Barn has staged throughout the years.
Typically, Cooney uses the first act to develop his characters and intrigues, and he reserves the second for the mayhem of characters caught with their pants down or, in this case, with suspenders suspiciously stemming from trouser zippers. This time around, the laughs are more evenly staggered between both acts, but the climax seems a bit less rousing.
Still, the show is well-rendered by director Brendan Ragotzy and a cast both experienced and accustomed to working with one another. Scott Burkell is a show-stealer as straight-laced personal assistant George Pidgen, who's been enlisted by his boss Richard Willey (Joe Aiello) to reserve him a 21/2-hour room in a posh 80-pound-a-night Westminster Hotel. Penelope Alex, easily the cast member most comfortable with an English accent, plays his neglected wife, who's a bit hot to trot herself.
The first mix-up comes when affair No. 1 seems poised to occur in the neighboring room to affair No. 2. Of course, the most politically incorrect role always brings the house down in Cooney, and returning Barn apprentice Eric Petersen does so in spades with his role as the Asian waiter whose English is dodgy when it comes to a simple coffee order but spot-on in terms of blackmail. Petersen's brilliant body language and clumsy kung-fu are very physical comedy at its best, his every line expertly delivered.
Longtime Barn vets Dusty Reeds as anti-pornography crusader Lily Chatterton and Howard McBride as the fussy hotel manager seem less comfortable in their smaller roles. Then again, the script sadly doesn't set them up to be quite the foils they'd need to be to climactically dash the follies of the room-crossed lovers.
Eye-candy extras Maura Hurley as vixen Jennifer Bristow and Rachel Simpson as Spanish chambermaid Maria give the romp fish-netted sex appeal and youthful vigor, although the age discrepancy between fellow adulterers Bristow and Aiello is off-putting. Burkell and Alex's chemistry feels much more believable.
Kathryn M. Flynn is duly dry as the receptionist who's not too receptive to the shenanigans on the sixth floor, and Eric Parker plays the poor sap who's completely out of the loop -- the husband who's supposed to be on holiday -- with strong physical comedy and wide-eyed indignation.
Consistent with Cooney, the script calls for much running in and out and slamming of doors, so perhaps the true star of "Two Into One" is set designer Andris Krumkalns. Designing the grand double-sided set, which converts in short order from two bedrooms into a hotel lobby complete with sliding elevator doors, seems like a mathematical nightmare up there with getting two into one.
Farce shines at The Barn
Elkhart Truth
Thursday, June 10, 2004
By Marcia Fulmer
Entertainment Editor
AUGUSTA , Mich. -- At the risk of being repetitious, I have to begin by stating emphatically that farce is my least -- my very least -- form of theater.
I was never a fan of the Marx Brothers or the Three Stooges (although younger members of my family disagreed) and any "plot" that can be totally dismantled within the first five minutes of the opening curtain, simply by telling the truth, seems thin at best.
That all changes, however, when the farce is in the hands of a trio of expert farceurs. Joe Aiello, Penelope Alex and Scott Burkell bring hilarious life -- if not any sense at all -- to Ray Cooney's "Two Into One," which opened Tuesday evening at The Barn Theatre.
Actually, "Two Into One" could be "It Runs in the Family" or "Caught in The Net" or any one of the Cooney farces that have proven to be so popular with Barn audiences throughout the years. The characters and locations are interchangeable and the "plots" so similar as to be indistinguishable from one another.
The characters always include a husband (Aiello) already involved in an affair or about to stray, a wife (Alex) and a best friend or, in this case, employee (Burkell). The last begins as an innocent bystander who is dragged unwittingly into a situation that becomes increasingly convoluted as the action progresses.
The three have worked together so often that they fit like the proverbial glove, never breaking character no matter how long and loud the laughs ... and they are longer and louder as the show goes on.
There is a lot of door slamming -- many sturdy doors are a requisite of any Cooney set -- an incredible amount of miscommunication and even more mistaken identities, so much so that one of the acting marvels is that each character is able to remember who he/she is, who he/she is supposed to be and the same for the characters they are playing opposite.
In "Two," which requires two sets, the ingenious design by Andris Krumnkalns allows a transformation from hotel lobby to side-by-side suites in less than a minute. And all doors withstand major punishment.
In the cast, newcomer Maura Hurley as Aiello's sexy squeeze of the moment, and Eric Petersen as an Asian waiter with a penchant for stumbling into very large tips, do beautifully in their initiation to farce.
But they are working with the masters.
As the wife who tries desperately to seize the moment, Alex is right in step with the breakneck pace set by director Brendan Ragotzy. She never falters, nor does Aiello as her wandering hubby.
Leering in anticipation of what's waiting behind door No. 1 (or is that No. 2?), he maneuvers his way through any and all opposition -- including a conservative member of Parliament (Dusty Reeds) sponsoring a vice bill who happens to be staying down the hall. He blusters, cajoles and deceives with admirable ease, digging himself in deeper and deeper with each turn of the truth.
But with due respect to the others, including farce veterans Howard McBride and Eric Parker, it is the incredibly flexible, wonderfully understated Burkell who is totally riveting throughout.
The lift of an eyebrow, the wink of an eye (and there is one scene where his eyelid fluctuations are monumental), the lift of a shoulder, the turn of a head, all combine to make him the one person you can't afford to take your eyes off of. Actions and reactions alike, he is totally hilarious. And all without ever seeming to push too hard. His final attempt to launch yet another (and more ridiculous) lie got a huge laugh before three words were out.
Only when the final door slammed shut did the realization that the to-the-minute timing and mind-boggling deceptions displayed by all had been achieved in only two weeks of rehearsal.
I gave up trying to follow long before the end of the first act and just sat back and laughed.
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