
DATE: Saturday, July 19, 1997               TAG: 9707190041

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Theater Review 

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

``A PARADISE OF FOOLS'' MILKS HUMOR FROM STOCK CHARACTERS

``A PARADISE of Fools,'' which is having its world premiere performances as a part of the Generic Theater's New Plays for Dog Days Summer Festival, is something like ``The Grifters meet Groucho Marx.'' It's a pleasant enough diversion with a lively, if totally predictable, plot about money changing hands amid incompetent crooks.

G.F. Rowe, one of the most durable and consistently dependable directors on the local scene for the past three decades, has invented some not-quite-but-almost hilarious business for his energetic cast. Christa Jones is a stunning stage presence as Francesca, a conniving beauty who joins with her less-intelligent accomplice, Bernardo, in an attempt to separate a foolish merchant from his newfound inheritance. The man is fair game. After all, they formerly were successful in selling him a liquid he believed would make him invisible when he sneaked into illicit bedrooms. Now, he's made to believe that he's pregnant - a condition that he finds wholly embarrassing and would pay exorbitant doctor's fees to remove.

Jones masquerades as the bill-padding doctor, wearing a Groucho nose and eyebrows. Her accomplice is played with sleazy ease by Wade Brinkley, clad in a rhinestone jacket with the price tag remaining. He comments that ``I once worked an honest day. It was awful.''

The primary fool, the ``pregnant'' man, is played with a good deal of comedic reaction by Jay Lockamy. His fear of impending childbirth is male vanity gone haywire - and quite hilarious.

Notable in the supporting cast is Carol Chittum, looking a good deal like Granny in ``The Beverly Hillbillies,'' as a dim-witted servant with hidden wisdom.

``A Paradise of Fools'' is one of the four new plays chosen from 400 submissions for the Generic Theater's fourth annual New Plays for Dog Days Festival - as close to a theatrical adventure as you're likely to find at these temperatures. Four world premieres in five weeks is something that few theatrical communities can claim.

The play is not quite a hot dog, but it is entertaining in a somewhat derivative manner. It is a modern version of Italian commedia dell'arte, a style of 16th to 18th century comedy improvised from standardized situations and stock characters. Indeed, it is perhaps too standardized and too stock. The characters are easily recognized types, and the supposed surprise ending is easily forecast. There is surely no subtlety about it. Although this is a familiar formula within its genre, the genre itself is rare.

And, yes, there is a good deal of humor to be mined from a foolish man who thinks he's pregnant. There are also frequent barbs at doctors and lawyers (who are becoming such frequent targets of playwrights and screenwriters that the barbs are becoming nonlethal).

Playwright Michael Wolfosn, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, is flying in to attend tonight's performance. He should be pleased with the life that has been breathed into his stylized characters.

Next, New Plays for Dog Days will stage the world premiere of ``Oceancity,'' a play about five twentysomethings in pursuit of sex, love, honesty and companionship during a summer vacation. It premieres Thursday. Each of the four plays will run Thursdays through Sundays and each will be repeated for a single performance in final festival week, Aug. 7-10. At festival's end, awards will be presented for Top Dog (best overall production) and Pick of the Litter (best new play).

If you want to add the word ``new'' to your theater vocabulary, this festival is the place to do some sampling. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

THEATER REVIEW

``A Paradise of Fools'' (World premiere)

What: The comedy by Michael Wolfson, presented as a part of the

New Plays for Dog Days Summer Festival '97

When: Tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. To be repeated at 8

p.m., Aug. 8.

Who: Directed by G.F. Rowe, featuring Christa Jones, Wade

Brinkley, Jay Lockamy, Michelle Bass, Carol Chittum

Where: The Generic Theater, 912 W. 21st St., Norfolk

How much: $7

Call: 441-2160