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Cold Cold Feet
By Tony Fiorentino
Directed by June Eubanks
Produced by Diamante Productions
At The Theatre Building Chicago
1225 W. Belmont
Chicago, IL
Call 773-327-5252, tickets $25
Thursdays & Fridays at 8 PM
Saturdays at 3 & 8 PM
Sundays at 3 PM
Running time is 95 minutes with no intermission
Through August 13, 2006
Webster’s defines: “A farce is a comedy written for the stage, or a film, which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely and extravagant - yet often possible - situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humor of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include puns and sexual innuendo, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases even further towards the end of the play, often involving an elaborate chase scene. ...”
Cold Cold Feet a hilarious new farce
Diamante Productions, in their second offering, has mounted a fresh, funny and classic structured farce. Cold Cold Feet is a new comedy (a world premiere) that instantly captures us and swiftly carries us through the convoluted world where the nervous groom, Benny (played empathetically by the talented Jayce Ryan) is in Vegas on the eve of his wedding when he gets a case of cold feet. He enlists his brother, Carl (the funny, energetic Andrew Pond) to help him call off the wedding. Carl refuses and fights Benny’s case of nerves.
With the wedding party waiting for Benny and Carl at the church for the wedding rehearsal, Carl refuses to call off the wedding and he chides Benny to get to the rehearsal. Before long, two hookers June & Simone (Christine Cummings & Jacquelyn Zook) who are a day late for the bachelor party arrive just before members of Benny’s family arrive to fetch the very late Benny to the church. Now the fun begins as Carl, in a desperate attempt to save his brother’s marriage, concocts a series of excuses to account for the groom’s mysterious delay.
The series of improbable situations, a key element of farce, are nicely laid out by the terrific ground work in the early scenes between Jayce Ryan’s Benny and Andrew Pond’s Carl. These two must engage us and get us to care what happens if the farce is to be funny. These two deliver as we like these two guys.
When the hotel room is invaded by the meddling mother (Kate Harris), a nagging sister (Brianna Mann), the parish priest (Mike O’Brien), and an irate bride-to-be (Erica Bethe), Carl orchestras the mayhem with manic energy, quick wit in a full whirlwind, door slamming comedy that is quickly becomes hoot!
Cold Cold Feet is a zesty, well-written and smoothly mounted farce that contains many belly laughs. The show will keep you guessing how Carl and Benny will get out of their crazy situations that only seem to get worse. Doors slam, wordplay and double meanings and misunderstandings abound throughout this light-weight comedy. The crazy think about this show is that it could actually happen!
Jayce Ryan and Andrew Pond are marvelous in setting up, then delivering Tony Fiorentino’s worthy script. The chaos here adds up to a good time. This sleeper show is the comedy hit of the summer. Go see it, you’ll have fun.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date reviewed: July 22, 2006
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