main
/ tickets / cast
& crew / local
restaurants / photographs
/ reviews
Truffaldino Says No: Zany
mishmash of desire and defiance
Lou Fancher
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Berkeleyside
Truffaldino Says No,
presented by Shotgun Players in a joint production with PlayGround,
a Berkeley Rep playwriting laboratory, barrels into the story
of a young man’s expedition with terrific velocity and grand
intentions. Combining aspects of Commedia dell’Arte and
1980’s sitcom sensibilities, the journey from Venice to
Venice Beach is rife with clever humor and reaches for depth beyond
the laughter.
Playwright Ken Slattery’s
Truffaldino (William Thomas Hodgson) is a son, predestined to
become a carbon copy of his father. Arlecchino, (Stephen Buescher),
slaves in the Old World of servants under masters and expects
his child will follow suit. Unfortunately, as a younger generation
is want to do, Truffaldino has ideas of his own.
Hilariously and surreptitiously
called all manner of variations on his name (Truffalpipi, Truffaldingdong,
Truffal–whatever) by the woman he both serves and loves,
a fluffy, vacuous Isabella (Ally Johnson), the young rebel participates
in his doomed-to-follow fate until announcing, expectedly, “No!”
Refusing to creep in subservience
and supported by Colombina (Gwen Loeb), his confident, flirts-with-anything-in-pants
mother, Truffaldino leaves behind the characters of his current
misery to discover his true destiny in the “new world”.
Arriving in America, he
falls into a position as innkeeper, but soon discovers his tie-cutting
travel is unsuccessful. The money-grubbing Pantalone reappears
as pink-suited Frank; the know-and-tell of Il Dottore is an unstoppable
fountain of information in Wiseman, and Il Capitano—whose
sniveling, suspicious attitude towards anything other than sliced
white bread is played masterfully by Andy Alabran—is the
equally distasteful Prewitt.
When Isabella/Debbie arrives
on the scene—accompanied by her love interest, Flavio/Mike
(Michael Phillis), who has ditched poetry for the modern day pool
but still holds a mysterious, romantic attraction for the zero-sum
gal—the plot is thicker than wet cement and soon seals Truffaldino’s
fate.
Director M. Graham Smith
mashes the manipulations into a tornadic swirl, with actors barely
breeching the edge of the stage before doing a 180 to re-enter
as their old world/new world opposite.
Buescher bumps his incredible
physical dexterity up to the level of gymnastics: slithering on
an off a staircase, polka-stepping through the diamond-dotted
set and flipping mask, priestly collar and tone of voice on and
off like a light switch.
Loeb too, stands out for
transforming herself with a pair of sunglasses and a hat, although
it’s the changing accents and swishy hips/squared hips contrast
that reveal her considerable acting chops.
With a forceful cast, each
contributing to the whole zany mishmash of desire and defiance,
the comedic notes are hit hard by the well-written script. Unfortunately,
the low tones, promised in program notes from Slattery and the
theater company, fell oddly short. The deeper explorations, into
the grim corners of competition between a parent and a child,
the torment of loving someone who loves another, the frustration
of desires unfulfilled or dreams denied, receive skirting attention
aimed at comedy. Lacking a layer of depth, Truffaldino’s
“No!” is somewhat reduced, however enjoyably.
Still, there’s much
to admire in Emilia Sumelius-Buescher’s masks, Smith’s
obvious affinity for Slattery’s script, and even more to
savor in the casts’ comedic craft.
