REVIEWSTheatre ReviewsTom Williams

3C

By David Adjmi.

Directed by Shade Murray.

At A Red Orchid Theatre, Chicago.

Nasty parody of 70’s”jiggle television” 70’s sitcom Three’s Company id tastelessly unfunny.

A Red orchid Theatre is known for producing provocative plays done extremely well with their troupe of terrific actors and smart directors. With David Adjmi’s 3C, however, they faced the challenge of how to present a parody of those 70’s sitcoms, here honing in on Three’s Company for a 21st Century audience.  Problem is that Adjmi’s script is superficial, redundant, and unfunny for the most part. On opening night, the friends of the cast laughed often, others a few times and many, like me, never laughed because to us the parody was so over the top that it came off as stupid rather than funny.

3C attempted to be a perky funny mock of Three’s Company with two weirdly dysfunctional girls living in Santa Monica that need a third roommate to pay expenses so they take a guy as their third. In order to appease their landlord, they have him play as a gay man. But Nick Mikula, as Brad, never convinces anyone that he could possibly be gay. His friend Terry (Steve Haddard) continues to invite him to discos to meet easy girls.

The two girls, Linda (Christina Gorman) is a low self-esteemed weirdo and Connie (Sigrid Sutter) is the dumb blond girl who worries that she’ll be sexually abused. These two wander through this 90 minute one-act.

Add some funny moments that quickly become over-done by Jennifer Engstrom as the crazy landlady Mrs. Wicker who will not take her meds with the sleazy landlord, Mr. Wicker (Lawrence Grimm) and we have the players who try too hard to make Adjmi’s lame script funny. Eventually, the work becomes infested with tasteless, nasty gay jokes and derogative impressions of gay men that will offend many.

What 3C ends up is a nasty parody that quickly becomes redundant as it wonders aimlessly and reverts to homophobic insults. The cast did their best with the poor material that would have been better served with some cuts and less homophobic bits. So, I wonder what the millennials will think of a parody from the 1970’s? You’ll either laugh heartedly or be offended with 3C.

Somewhat Recommended.

Tom Williams.

Date Reviewed: April 24, 2017.

For more info checkout the 3C page at theatreinchicago.com.

At A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N.Wells, Chicago, IL, call312-943-8722, www.aredorchidtheatre.org, tickets 430 – $35, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm, running time is 90 minutes without intermission,throughJune 4, 2017.