THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610040050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: BY MONTAGUE GAMMON III, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: 63 lines
THE WAY OFF Broadway Cafe gives Christopher Durang's off-the-wall humor an engaging, carefully performed exhibition in its current production of ``Laughing Wild.''
The play is an unusual combination of monologues by two characters known only as Woman and Man. ``I want to tell you about life,'' says Woman, proceeding to reveal how her anxieties and neuroses have made it almost impossible for her to function.
She can't go shopping or take a cab without precipitating an incident, and yet she is bright enough to describe her situation with a quote from Samuel Beckett. She says that she is ``Laughing wild amid severest woe,'' giving the play its title and precisely describing its combination of poignance and comedy.
Leigh Hronek turns in a performance of apparently effortless clarity, ideally attuned to the small space of Way Off Broadway. It's a theater in which a performer's every tiny gesture and nuance of expression is visible, and Hronek fills her characterization with detail and supports it with a range of subtle, well-defined emotions.
When Man has his turn on stage, he talks about his attempts to overcome his pessimism - he would call in negativity - with pop psychology and self-help techniques.
He carries in his pocket a pack of cards on which are written ``affirmations'' that he consults to remind him to maintain a positive attitude. Yet he undergoes a profound internal struggle each time he voices some bit of carefully considered, artificial sounding optimism.
The artificiality comes not from Stewart Reed's carefully crafted acting, but from the tentative sincerity with which the character approaches his own attempts to become sociable.
For all the sadness inspired by a person who admits ``I hate being attracted to people,'' the second half of Act One turns into a delightful send-up of all the ``power of positive thinking'' theorists.
Man and Woman share the stage for Act Two. Alternating speeches, they relate a series of separate but oddly shared dreams that whirl fantastically between the worlds of daytime TV, New Age gatherings and Roman Catholic imagery.
The play ends with a lovely shift of rhythm and tone that harkens back to terms Woman has used in Act One, when she spoke about ``sad longing'' and ``awful longing.'' The show fades, almost like a mist, into a wistful description of rare ``joy one summer day.''
Tom Harris directed ``Laughing Wild'' with a delicacy and precision that comes as close to being masterful as anyone could wish. A difficult mix of personal tragedy and satirical humor makes his show one that will not appeal to every taste, and the format of alternating monologues is not always a valid substitute for real drama. It is still a more mature, less self-indulgent work than most that Christopher Durang has written, and it hits emotional notes that resonate well after the stage lights have dimmed. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
THEATER REVIEW
What: ``Laughing Wild,'' by Christopher Durang, by the Studio One
Producers Group
When: 8 tonight and Saturday
Where: Way Off Broadway Cafe, 147 Granby St., Norfolk
Call: 623-PLAY by CNB