NTC Stages Unnecessary Farce
As the Perfect Way to Usher in the Summer
and End a Wonderful Season
Unnecessary Farce is an award-winning stage comedy by Paul Slade Smith that combines all the elements of classic farce with a contemporary American plot. Also, Unnecessary Farce is an excellent Directorial debut at NTC for acting veteran Johnny DeBernard, assisted by Kim Bromley. Cheers to Johnny DeBernard for his outstanding sense of comic timing!
Set in the adjoining motel rooms – styled with perfect motel appearance by Set Designer Mark Clark and expertly costumed by John Clancy and Janice Deneau, the show opens with Matt Farrell’s affable Eric Sheridan struggling to put on his pants (one of many scenes of hilariously half-dresssed actors). Eric and his partner, Officer Billie Dwyer (Ashley Kimball) have set up a video monitor to catch Mayor Meekly (Hugh Campion) confessing embezzlement to his new (sexy) accountant Karen Brown (Amber Kernohan) – but throw in neurotic security guard Agent Frank (beautifully portrayed by Ben Ortega) and a bumbling Scottish murderer Todd (Richard Steele), and things go predictably awry. Then there’s the unassuming Mrs. Mary Meekly (Marilyn Hughes) who is concerned for her husband’s whereabouts and well-being.
Ashley Kimball, playing the awkward gun-fearing cop on her first real assignment, is the show’s best asset. In many scenes she is simply sitting on the motel bed and watching the action unfold in the next room but, with amazement, her understated comic-timing is a show stealer, especially when paired with Matt Farrell’s timid, equally inept Police Officer–in-crime.
Richard Steele commands our
attention as an impressive, bagpipe-
playing-criminal with a booming
Scottish accent, and the moments
spent lost in translating are some of
the funniest in the show.
Written by former-Chicagoan Paul Slade Smith, Unnecessary Farce contains a handful of sharply- written jokes, but the majority of the humor is physical:
the synchronized door slamming
and rough and tumble bedroom
romps. Unnecessary Farce
certainly is not “food for thought,”
but its unsophisticated charm is a good taste of unabashedly crude comedy done right.
Unnecessary Farce is a fun, light-hearted play and a worthy effort by the NTC.
(Images courtesy of NTC)
Unnecessary Farce began its run May 22 and will be performed through June 14, 2015, at Novato Theater Company Playhouse, 5420 Nave Drive, Suite C, Novato 94949.
Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
Order tickets online at www.NovatoTheaterCompany.org (print out your ticket from the confirmation email). If you are unable to print out your ticket, your name will be on a list at the Box Office at your scheduled time. The Box Office opens at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; and at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.
You may purchase your ticket at the Box Office by cash or check on the date you attend. Credit cards are not accepted at the Box Office.
Please telephone Novato Theater Company at 415-883-4498 with questions.
Coming up next at the Novato Theater Company Playhouse, to start the new season will be Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang and directed by Buzz Halsing from October 23 through November 28, 2015.
Flora Lynn Isaacson
