THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, by John Guare; directed by Frank Gerrish; Pygmalion Productions, Browning Theatre, Union Station, 25th and Wall Ave., Ogden; continues at 7:30 p.m., April 19, 20, 24-26 and 30 and May 1-3. General admission seating; adults, $12, students and senior citizens, $10; tickets available through Smith'sTix outlets or by calling 467-8499 or 1-800-888-8499. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes (one intermission).
OGDEN — John Guare's "House of Blue Leaves," written in 1971, is an absurdist comedy wannabe. There's an assortment of really odd characters, all enmeshed in some very strange situations, but Guare is no Ionesco.
Except for a brief prologue, set during amateur night at the El Dorado Bar and Grill on Oct. 4, 1965, in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens, all of the action takes place the following day in zoo attendant Artie Shaughnessy's rundown apartment.
Since Artie claims to "work in a zoo and come home to a zoo," it's appropriate that the songs he writes and performs — badly — have "lounge lizard" stamped all over them. Artie leads a rather humdrum life with his mentally disturbed, pill-obsessed wife, Bananas, who pines for their son, Ronnie, currently AWOL from Fort Dix, N.J.
Frank Gerrish, who directed this show, easily tackles the role of Artie, who comes off as both vulnerable and slightly dumb. While he yearns for bright lights and maybe even an Oscar, you know he's going to be stuck forever at the Central Park Zoo. Reb Fleming is well-cast as Bananas, who has slipped off into the deep end with not much hope of recovering. Blake Barlow is also terrific as the intense, young Ronnie, decked out in camouflage attire and planning to blow up Pope Paul during his visit to Yankee Stadium.
What keeps Artie going, besides his terrible attempts at composing pop songs, is his flamboyant mistress, Bunny Flingus (a somewhat forced performance by Nancy Roth), who just happens to live in the apartment directly below.
As the action kicks into high gear, the Shaughnessy's flat is jammed with several unannounced visitors — deaf Hollywood starlet Corrinna Stroller (Summer Gerrard), who happens to stop off en route to Australia, where she's going to have surgery on her ears; three slightly loony nuns (nicely played by Aina Holtz-Lagor, Angela Daniels and Lucy Campbell-Weber), who drop their binoculars while trying to get a better look at the pope's entourage from atop the apartment-house roof; a military policeman from Fort Dix (Jason Mertlich), who is coming to arrest Ronnie; Artie's boyhood chum, esteemed Hollywood director Billy Einhorn (Michael Hardy); and "White Man" (William Ferrer) a dreadlocked African-American who has dropped by to drive Bananas to a rest home.
The latter three characters don't surface until late in Act 2, but their roles — especially Einhorn's — are pivotal.
Pygmalion Productions, which has bounced around in various venues, seems to have found a suitable home in the intimate Browning Theatre on the north end of Union Station
There are some hilarious moments in "House of Blue Leaves," but it's less biting today than it was 30 years ago.
Sensitivity rating: Some adult language and situations, but overall it's fairly tame.
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