What the Reviewers Said

Barn's `Out of Order' is in perfect sync

Wednesday, July 12, 2006
By Ben Jones
Special to the Gazette

``I've just had a bang!'' says the wife of a member of Parliament as she tumbles out of the hotel-room closet in her satin nightgown, surprised to see her husband.

She means a bang on the head from a slamming window, but her husband takes it to mean a romp in the sack. After all, she's positively giddy.

The audience at the Barn Theatre felt the same way, laughing uproariously throughout the Tuesday-night opening of ``Out of Order,'' a slam-bang comedy by Ray Cooney.

The play features Barn mainstays Joe Aiello, Scott Burkell, Penelope Alex, Howard McBride and Eric Parker all reprising their roles from earlier productions. Judging from their comic timing, they have the parts down pat. And while Burkell and Alex's roles may be suited to younger actors, one can't wish not to see the accomplished performances these two veterans bring.

This marks the third time in 12 seasons that the Barn has staged the 1990 comedy, and why not? The subject matter never goes out of style. Why, just this week Scottish newspapers carried breaking news on a sex scandal involving a member of the Scottish Parliament, with details more tawdry and bizarre than anything playwright Cooney could have dreamt up.

Cor blimey! As long as it's in the papers, then, anyone fancy a British sex farce?

The Barn audience sure did, cracking up at the double entendres, the double takes, the double-dealing and the two-timing of the characters.

Any sex farce works on the principle of revolving doors, and in this case the two principal portals are a sash window to the balcony that keeps slamming shut and a closet door that keeps swinging open.

The frolic-turned-frantic takes place in Room 648 of the tony Westminster Hotel, where Tory MP Richard Willey (Aiello), playing hooky from an all-night sitting of the House of Commons, has arranged for a dalliance with Labour leader Neil Kinnock's typing-pool girl, Jane Worthington (Alex). He clicks on BBC Radio 2, over which Rod Stewart croons ``Tonight's the Night.''

But just when things are getting frisky, they discover they aren't alone -- there's a body in the room, or half in the room, anyway. Of course, as a comic device, the corpse (Nick Horton) isn't going anywhere -- it hangs around for most of the rest of the play.

Willey browbeats his cringing parliamentary private secretary, George Pigden (Burkell) -- a man who likes to be home by 9:30 so his invalid mother won't worry -- into helping him dispose of the body while evading the prying eyes of the hotel manager (McBride), the jealous husband (Parker), a waiter who makes out like a bandit (Roy Brown), a sexy nurse who makes out on the ottoman (Jana DeBusk), Willey's own sex-starved wife (Bethany Wood) and an Italian maid (Heidi VanSlambrook) who keeps wanting to make the bed up.

``Is `Fred' worn out, George?'' Willey asks Pigden as they pretend, for the frowning manager's sake, that the corpse is merely drunk and passed out.

``Dead beat,'' replies Pigden (Burkell) after a beat, deadpan.

The play moves snappily under the direction of Brendan Ragotzy, who also directed it in 1998, and never loses its flow. In fact, its finest moment occurs late in the second act, when Aiello and Burkell are beside themselves with glee on the ottoman, improvising their way out of one fix and into another. Right then they are about as in sync as two actors can be, and the audience responds, wrapping itself around their every word.

The play is technically demanding, since the slamming window has to function (or malfunction) with precision and the closet door has to swing with a body hanging on its hook. Tuesday night, everything went off without a hitch. ``Out of Order'' was in perfect working order.


Nothing's 'Out of Order' with Barn production

Christopher Tower
For the Enquirer

"Out of Order" is the wrong title for this excellent show where everything is very much in order.

The Barn Theatre has not produced any of Ray Cooney's farces since 2002's "Caught in the Net," opting for Larry Shue's "The Foreigner" and Jeff Daniels' "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" instead. But happy patrons escaped from a rainy Tuesday to pack the Barn's seats for the return of farces at the Barn.

"Out of Order" has been staged at the Barn twice before, but the audience didn't seem to mind with laughter so loud and unceasing that at times it drowned out the performers' lines.

Decidedly British, "Out of Order" focuses on the tomfoolery of a Parliamentary junior minister, Richard Willey (Joe Aiello), trying to cover up his affair with Jane Worthington (Penelope Alex) when the couple find a dead body (Nick Horton) in the window of their hotel suite.

Willey scrupulously phones his private secretary, George Pigden (Scott Burkell), to help sort it out. The situation grows grim enough as the trio attempts to hide the body and the affair from the hotel manager (Howard McBride) and a cunning waiter (Roy Brown).

But when Jane's husband Ronnie (Eric Parker) shows up, it's just the beginning of a tangled web of hilarious deceit.

Eventually cover-ups of the initial cover-up and lies about more lies involve Willey's wife Pamela (Bethany Wood), Pigden's mother's nurse (Jana DeBusk), and a maid (Heidi VanSlambrook).

Hilarious is too mild a word for the results of this complicated situation of mistaken identities, lies and physical antics.

Cooney's farces always have been popular at the Barn, and the audience showed just how much with howls of laughter, tears of hilarity and spontaneous applause. All of this zany craziness is orchestrated brilliantly by Director Brendan Ragotzy.

Aiello, Burkell and Alex are a magnificent comic team but are lucky to be surrounded by an ensemble cast who make "Out of Order" the funniest production at the Barn since 2001's "There Goes the Bride."

Aiello is in his element. He's animated without over-playing his role. He's elastic in expression and gesture in a way that would out-perform Jerry Lewis.

Likewise, Burkell is the perfect straight-faced man to Aiello's clown. Burkell has the composure of stone. He's so skilled at playing straight that when the madcap frolics muss up his starched exterior the results are exponentially more hilarious than they would be in the hands of a less-skilled performer.

Alex, who spends much of the play in underwear, supplies just the right foil for the Aiello/Burkell duo.

But without a strong supporting cast the show would never be successful.

Parker continues to show why he might be the best actor at the Barn Theatre. He plays the role of Ronnie in an uncharacteristic fashion for him, and it works magnificently. And for patrons who adore Parker, he spends most of act two in a towel before baring his rear at the finale.

Brown also deserves kudos for proving the importance of the character actor in shows like this one and demonstrates why he's one of the Barn's best assets.

McBride, Wood, DeBusk and VanSlambrook all manage their roles with considerable skill. But it's Nick Horton as "the body," who may have one of the most difficult roles and delivers the best display of concentration in the show.

If anything critical can be said about "Out of Order" it's that the sets are poorly appointed and the color choice somewhat garish. But everyone in the theater is laughing too hard to look at the sets.

The bar show that follows is worthy of reservations, especially for a cover of "Sunshine Day" made famous by "The Brady Bunch."

Christopher Tower of Richland reviews theater and teaches at Western Michigan University.
Originally published July 14, 2006

Prepare for a fast-paced farce at The Barn

Published: Thursday, July 13, 2006 -- The Truth
By Marcia Fulmer
Entertainment Editor

AUGUSTA, Mich. -- The theatrical bill of fare through July 23 at The Barn Theatre is "Out of Order," which is not a description of the production.

It is a farce. Not my favorite brand of comedy but, if I have to see it, there is no place I'd rather see it than at the Augusta, Mich., playhouse. And only in the hands of Scott Burkell, Joe Aiello and Penelope Alex, definitely "farceurs extraordinaire."

In this case, that means that not only do they have the talent to imbue their less-than-deep characters with something a little more palatable than cardboard, but also the amazing comic timing to go from stroll to run to gallop without missing a beat.

Right along with this veteran trio are company members Roy Brown and Eric Parker, who fill in their character blanks with equal ease and subsequent effect.

The "plot" (and if you've seen one Ray Cooney farce, you've ...) would end within the first 10 minutes with just one word. In "Out of Order," that word stretches two frantic hours, plus.

Set in London during the "reign" of Margaret Thatcher (British political references have little relevance but, in the long run, really don't impact the action), it begins with Richard Willey, M.P. (Aiello) preparing for an afternoon assignation with Jane Worthington (Alex), a government secretary. The location is a suite in the Westminster Hotel, which boasts a number of very sturdy doors and a huge window that seems to have a mind of its own and serves, even more than the doors, as a source of entrances and exits.

Things go smoothly for about five minutes, long enough for Jane to lose her dress, when opening the drapes reveals A Body (played with admirable stillness by Nick Horton), draped over the window sill. Circumstances -- Willey has a wife (Bethany Wood) and Jane, a husband with a temper (Eric Parker) -- preclude calling the authorities. The hunt is on then for a way to remove the body without becoming incriminated. That idea, of course, goes immediately -- and literally -- out the window.

Enter Willey's PPS (Parliamentary Private Secretary), nebbishy George Pigden (Burkell), who lives with his elderly mother and is ruled by her tyrannical caregiver, Nurse Foster (Jana DeBusk). He is instantly the unwilling instrument in Willey's increasingly wild schemes.

Subsequent plans involve the necessity for an adjoining suite, enlisting the frequent help of an accommodating (for a price) waiter (Brown) and the escalating use of false identities. Note: That all are able to remember who is who -- or not -- as the plots and relationships multiply, deserves solid applause.

Ultimately, it really doesn't matter who does what to whom or why and lovers of farce will appreciate it to the max.

Aiello's slow, increasingly frustrated hysteria is done to perfection and Burkell is, as always, the master of reaction. Parker vacillates between rage and contrition, and due to some contrived plot device, spends the second act in a towel, as does DeBusk. Lingerie is the costume of choice for Wood and Alex. Happily, all look very good in (and out) of their "outfits."

Scenic designer Doug Blickle has provided an attractive hotel setting with admirably sturdy doors and director Brendan Ragotzy keeps the action speeding along as much as possible.

In farce, it is essential that a rhythm be established in order to keep the really flimsy plot on track. When this rhythm is interrupted, it forces those in the race to work harder to get it up to speed again. Unfortunately, Howard McBride as the hotel manager is several deadly beats behind. Slow and stuffy just doesn't do it here.

Contact Marcia Fulmer at mfulmer@etruth.com.



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