The Arts / Reviews

Theater review: 'Words’ wasted on bad script

By David Burke | Wednesday, August 06, 2008 | () comments

There’s a message deep down inside “Any Famous Last Words?” the newest offering from Geneseo’s Richmond Hill Players, but I’m not quite certain about how it’s packaged.

I’m sure it’s supposed to spur some talking points among its audience — Is a playwright who takes the stories of another person and uses them in her own work stealing them or using her own creative license? — if they want to peel away that many layers.

The playwright in this case, Lucy Sisson (played here by Jackie Skiles), is supposed to be confronting this question while under anesthetic in the hospital to have a small chicken bone removed from her throat. (Never mind that she appears to be fully functioning and normal as can be.)

Nancy Pahl Gilsenan’s script is missing the big “a-ha!” moment, or at least a dream sequence, as far as I can tell anyway.

While playwright Lucy is supposed to be a creative genius with a new show debuting that night, it’s the characters around her that are far more interesting — particularly newcomer Barbara McAbee as her sidekick, an eccentric poet named Sada; Cara DeMarlie as a nurse with a quirky habit of galloping backwards when she enters the hospital room (which may be out of necessity to accommodate the Richmond Hill Barn’s in-the-round arrangement); and Angie Keeney as a sweet and helpful nun wearing a blouse and scarf instead of a habit.

Lucy discovers literary gold when Mrs. Kronenkrantz, an elderly immigrant woman (finely played by Sandy Stoltenberg) becomes her roommate in the hospital, dramatically telling of her escape from a war camp. She is later confronted — either in real life or her dream — by Tikesha Wiggins, whose story was lifted for Lucy’s current hit play.

Not much of the humor in the script or director Joseph DePauw’s execution is original. Lucy’s complaints about backless hospital gowns or having to repeatedly fill a specimen cup aren’t any big revelations, and Richmond Hill repeatedly uses a flushing sound effect — which stopped being humorous about the second season of “All in the Family” — for laughs. (Even the sound effects for the toilet and the sink stop abruptly.)

The only true, real humor in the show, aside from an occasional flip by McAbee’s Sada, is the interaction between Lucy, her husband (David Bailey) and two daughters (Elizabeth Buzard and Bailey O’Neil). Even though Mom’s in the hospital, she’s still supposed to solve all of the family’s day-to-day problems.

If the script had more of those moments, I’d find better things to say about “Famous Last Words.”

IF YOU GO

What: “Any Famous Last Words?”

When: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday, July 19; 4 p.m. Sunday, July 20

Where: Barn Theatre, Richmond Hill Park, Geneseo, Ill.

How much: $8

Information: (309) 944-2244 or RHPlayers.com on the Web