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Insignificance
By Terry Johnson
Directed by Brad Akin
At Steep Theatre
3002 N. Sheridan Road
Chicago, IL
Call 312-458-0722, tickets $18
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm
Running time is 1 hour, 50 minutes with intermission’
Through September 1, 2007
“You’re famous!”
“So are you.”
“I know. We have an awful lot in common.”
---from Insignificance
Steep Theatre follows their terrific production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with an under rehearsed production of Terry Johnson’s provocative artful comedy, Insignificance. What hurt the opening night performance was Toby Nicholson’s bewildering and unsure performance as The Professor (Albert Einstein). Nicholson flubbed many lines and seem wooden and lost at times. Maybe after several performances, he’ll be effective. Julia Siple as The Actress (Marilyn Monroe) also wavered as she stumbled through several of her speeches. Again, with more work, these two will be fine.
The show is a fable-like comedy that finds The Professor in a Manhattan hotel room in 1953 when he is visited by The Senator (Joe McCarthy), played by the confident Vince Teninty. The Senator wants The Professor to testify at The House Un-American Activities Committee hearing to name names and deny his alleged Communist affiliations. The Senator is in full intimidation mode.
Next The Professor is visited by The Actress (Marilyn Monroe) in fill white dress . This encounter has The Actress explaining The Theory of Relativity in funny and accurate terms. This clever scene could use some polishing to garner more clarity and laughs. The Monroe character is presented as an intelligent, thinking person totally going against Monroe’s bimbo persona. Nicholson’s performance as the Einstein character misses some smart comedic moments due to his being unprepared.
The best part of this fable came for Alex Gillmor’s terrific take on The Ballplayer (Joe DiMaggio). Gillmore has the dumb jock persona nicely player for effective comedy. Gillmore shows The Ballpalyer’s vulnerability and insecurity in the best performance of the show.
Playwright Terry Johnson got lost as the show progressed and had little to say and predictable action after the clever Relativity early scenes. Too bad since the basic premise of the show has so much potential.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: July 26, 2007
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