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Keeping Down with the Joneses
By John Chapman and Jeremy Lloyd
Produced by Attic Playhouse
410 Sheridan Rd
Highwood, IL
Tickets: 847-433-2660, $18 advance/$20 at the door
Fri-Sat at 8:00 p.m., Sun at 3:00 p.m.
Running time is two hours with one intermission
Through March 9th
Laughter from the Attic: British Humor Delights
If an unpretentious evening of entertainment filled with laughs is what you are up for, there is little in the area that will delight more than the riotously funny Keeping Down with the Joneses now playing at Highwood’s Attic Playhouse. It is a thoroughly British piece of work with a style of humor that is reminiscent of the 80’s BBC sitcoms that fill the PBS air. Though it is definitively in the category of fluff and absolutely apropos of nothing in the present day, Keeping Down with the Joneses unabashedly amuses. Its raison d’ętre is going for laughter and the lively cast strikes the audience’s targeted funny bones again and again.
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The essence of the play is a situation in which a pretentious MP (Fred Heskett) and his wife (Audra Binder) have purchased and installed an underground bomb shelter in anticipation of Russian attack. The situation won’t read well for those too young to remember the cold war and even those who remember it clearly will recognize that the paranoia of the characters belongs more to the 60’s than to the 80’s when the show was written. None of this matters when, through a series of mishaps, the couple ends up trapped for three weeks in their stylish, three-bedroom bunker complete with delusional mother-in-law (Denise Leahy), Swedish nanny (Laurie Hartung), Indian milkman (Steve Lehtman), the Cockney telephone installer (Heath Howes), and the porno-producing neighbors (Geoffrey Maher and Kelli Clevenger).
The list of accents on stage is burdensome and I admit that I – knowing too well that this style of humor cannot work without them – groaned when reading the synopsis of the play. Put your reservations away. The somewhat community playhouse feel of the Attic belies the professional casts they attract and the dialect work in Joneses is first rate. Lehtman as milkman Clive Patel is simply hilarious. Howes as the working class installer Joe Parker doesn’t miss a beat. British class consciousness and decorum take a thorough, but good-natured, thrashing and the laughs are non-stop. If you live in the North Shore and enjoy light comedy, this is a must see show. As for whether or not Keeping Down with the Joneses is worth a drive up from Chicago, it’s a harder call. For good, clean fun Joneses can’t be beat. There are several very good and affordable restaurants nearby, parking is easy and the theatre is a comfortable and inviting space. Attic Playhouse is definitely part of the Chicago theatre scene, so if you’ve never been there, this is a great opportunity to try something new. I guarantee you will leave Keeping Down with the Joneses smiling.
Recommended
Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Date Reviewed: February 16, 2008
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