LATHAM: “Tigers Be Still,” a play that is being given its regional premiere at Curtain Call Theatre in Latham, is off-beat fun filled with what we love to call quirky characters.
Yes the play is funny, but beyond the laughs there is something being said about the unnecessary burdens we place on our emotional well-being. In an almost subliminal way we realize those self-effacing quirks that make those characters so safe and funny to watch are often traits we can find in ourselves – if we look hard enough.
That’s one of the many pleasures of “Tigers Be Still.” It’s an amusing comedy that finds enough truth about human nature to be a satisfying theatrical experience.
Indeed, “Tigers Be Still” is the kind of play that is often a casualty of modern commercial theater. It’s the kind of work you might find Off-Broadway. It should be enjoyed by almost everyone, yet does not have the sizzle that makes someone realize how much satisfaction there is in attending a small play that sheds light on human insecurities in a mostly humorous way.
Thanks to an excellent four-person cast this work that sounds dreary is sweet, humorous and endearing. The performers so carefully craft their performances that the insecurity of their characters is masked by almost buffoonish behavior that never depreciates the sincerity of their emotional turmoil.
The plot of “Tigers Be Still” revolves about Sherry who is an art therapist. She recently overcame a bout of depression which confined her to bed. Her sister Grace is still hiding in bed comforted by a bottle of whiskey, while her mother elevates agoraphobia to a new level as she hides upstairs also refusing to get out of bed.
However, one action the mother was capable of doing was to write a letter to the local high school principle asking he give Sherry a job. Since the principle and the mother were high school lovers he not gives Sherry the job but assigns her to help his son Zack, who is a loner with anger management issues.
The success of the show is dependent on the audience’s relationship with Sherry. She is the person through whom we see the eccentricities of the others. Christine Doidge is a marvel in creating a woman who is in equal doses both insecure and charming. She is helpless but aware, and timid yet determined. Her spirit of finding herself is contagious and others draw strength from her understated courage. It’s a masterful performance.
Jacob Luria is also terrific as young Zack. Luria has a superb sense of comic timing and a quiet intelligence that makes what should be a loser appear to be a young man with a sensitive nature that is traumatically suppressed.
Also excellent is Chris Foster as Joseph, the high school principle who appears to have lived a life without fulfilling any of his dreams. Foster finds a lot of comedy in the man’s no-nonsense approach to problem solving, yet is able to reveal the man’s wounds so we wish him well when at play’s end he tries to recover a lost love.
Rhiannon Antico is effective in playing the annoying sister Grace as a self-centered sloth with a vindictive nature. Grace is the only character without a sympathetic back-story so it is difficult to find her revenge tactics funny.
Bryce Cutler designs a set that is a deceptive as is the play. What looks like an average living room is designed to offer several performing spaces that serve the play without cluttering the action.
The same can be said about Carol Max’s direction. It is clean and efficient while serving a script that works as both a simple comedy and a complex view on individuals who learn that the tigers of the mind are only threatening when you give them credibility.
“Tigers Be Still” at Curtain Call Theatre, 210 Old Loudon Road, Latham. Through February 14. Performances 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. 877-7529.
Bob Goepfert is the arts editor for the Troy Record.
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